Laser und XFEL Experiment (LUXE) accelerator and physics studies

Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), the relativistic quantum theory how light interacts with matter, is currently the most precise theory in science. The precision of this theory is based on perturbation theory and at higher laser light intensities non-linear phenomena become significant. These non-linear phenomena can be compared to theoretical QED, and this is the primary aim of the LUXE experiment. LUXE will collide electrons (or secondary photons from electrons) with a high-power laser, this will allow a detailed probe of non-linear QED. Approximately half of the required experiment is the electron accelerator, which is the European Free Electron Laser (XFEL.EU) and numerous accelerator physics activities are required for the success of LUXE. These activities are numerous and will contribute to the PhD thesis, these include (not exclusively)

i. simulation of the accelerator complex, beam instrumentation and beam backgrounds
ii. integration of beam instrumentation in the measurement and simulation of LUXE
iii. design of the electron beam dump
iv. design of the inverse Compton scattering chamber
v. analysis and simulation of the collision data
vi. investigation of coherent bremsstrahlung as a photon source

The core of the PhD thesis will be a range of experiments and simulations that are related to core physics mission of LUXE. The thesis will end around the start of data taking for LUXE, and the project will probably conclude with some (limited) experimental commissioning data.

The student will become a member of the LUXE collaboration, an international group of particle physicists. The student might have to undertake common tasks for the collaboration. The collaboration will publish multiple outputs during the PhD including a technical design report, physics impact papers, and high impact journal publications. It is expected that the student will be a co-author on these publications. The student will also join dedicated working groups for specific topics related to their PhD research. The LUXE experiment is based at the German national laboratory for high energy physics (DESY), and they might be expected to visit frequently or have a longer stay, compatible with the needs of the experiment, their personal training and commitments.