E-320 experiment at FACET-II

Lead Research Organisation: Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Mathematics and Physics

Abstract

The present proposal is intended to support the participation of Dr. Gianluca Sarri and his PhD student, Mr. Niall Cavanagh, of The Queen's University of Belfast to the experimental campaign E-320 at the FACET-II beamline of the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC). The investigator of this proposal is a central member of an international collaboration of world-leading Universities and research institutes, including Princeton, Stanford, Ecole Polytechnique, the Max-Planck institute for Nuclear Physics, and UCLA that recently was awarded, in an extremely competitive environment, beam time at FACET-II for a series of ground-breaking experiments on Strong-Field Quantum ElectroDynamics (SFQED). In a nutshell, the experiments aim at studying the dynamics of the 13 GeV electron beam provided by the FACET-II accelerator as it propagates through the focus of a 20 TW laser system, already installed and operational. Peak intensities exceeding 1x1020 Wcm^-2 can be realistically achieved, allowing to reach a peak electric field, in the rest frame of the electrons, of the order of 70% of the Schwinger field, or critical field of QED. This value significantly exceeds what previously obtained at SLAC in the late 90s and, more recently, by the PI and collaborators using the Gemini laser at the Central Laser Facility in the UK.
We plan to further advance previous work by performing precision measurements and collecting extensive data sets to provide sufficient statistics to study in detail iconic phenomena in SFQED, such as quantum radiation reaction, strongly non-linear Compton scattering, and pair production. The collected data will shed light at the current intensity frontier of high-power lasers, allowing one not only to test numerical and analytical models currently used in this physical regime, but also to optimise experimental techniques for the operation of the next generation of ultra-intense laser facilities.

Planned Impact

The next generation of ultra-intense laser facilities will allow achieving unprecedented laser intensities and will open up exciting and unexplored avenues of research in the response of matter to these ultra-high fields. Besides the fundamental interest in probing physics at this intensity frontier, there are also attractive practical applications since particle and photon beams with unique properties will be generated. The applications of these beams to areas as diverse as manufacturing, medicine, and homeland security are virtually limitless.

However, the response of particles to such ultra-intense fields cannot be treated classically and naturally falls within the realm of QED Whilst QED is well understood in a low-field regime, little is yet experimentally known of its strong-field behaviour (SFQED). A vast wealth of theoretical work has been, and continues to be, developed to understand and model this extreme experimental conditions. Several numerical codes have been developed worldwide, including CAIN [29], GUINEA-PIG [30], OSIRIS [33], and the UK-developed code EPOCH [32]. These models already include SFQED corrections to the particle dynamics but, to date, lack a detailed experimental validation. Providing large-statistics and precise datasets in this regime is thus crucial for the correct operation of the next generation of ultra-intense lasers. Not only, experimentally accessing high-energy density environments will have ample resonance in several others scientific areas. For instance, it will help understanding the dynamics and radiative properties of astrophysical plasmas in proximity of ultra-massive objects and it will help towards the design of the next generation of particle colliders (CLIC and ILC will reach the critical field at the interaction point). Finally, the practical work involved in setting up this class of experiments will result in the development of novel detectors and techniques that will be instrumental for running high energy-density experiments.

To ensure maximum academic impact of our results, we identify three main routes of dissemination of our results. The primary means of dissemination remains publication in internationally leading scientific journals. We will target different journals, depending on the scientific nature of the results to be presented. We will submit our main results to high impact factor journals such as Physical Review Letters, journals of the Nature family, and Applied Physics Letters. For the more technical aspects of the work, we will target more specialised journals. Within the collaboration, we have agreed to list all authors in alphabetical order under the general name "SFQED collaboration".

We will also present our results to national and international conferences. We will present our results at world-leading conferences in the field such as the Plasma Physics European and American physical conferences, the European Advanced Accelerator Concepts, SPIE, and PQE. The investigator has already a long track record of invitations in these conferences and he is also an active member of European and national projects on using laser-driven secondary sources for practical applications, such as EuPRAXIA, PWASC, and ALEGRO. The results of this project will then also be shown at the regular international meetings of these large-scale collaborations, in order to boost this emerging area of laser-driven strong field QED. Finally, our collaboration is planning to setup a freely accessible database of the results obtained, so that they can be used worldwide for the benchmarking of numerical codes and the development of more refined analytical models in strong-field QED.
 
Description the E-320 experiment aims at studying the dynamics of the 13 GeV electron beam provided by the FACET-II accelerator as it propagates through the focus of a 20 TW laser system, already installed and operational. Peak intensities exceeding 1x1020 Wcm^-2 can be realistically achieved, allowing to reach a peak electric field, in the rest frame of the electrons, of the order of the Schwinger field, or critical field of QED. This value significantly exceeds what previously obtained at SLAC in the late 90s and, more recently, by the PI and collaborators using the Gemini laser at the Central Laser Facility in the UK.

We will perform precision measurements and collecting extensive data sets to provide sufficient statistics to study in detail iconic phenomena in SFQED, such as quantum radiation reaction, strongly non-linear Compton scattering, and pair production. The collected data will shed light at the current intensity frontier of high-power lasers, allowing one not only to test numerical and analytical models currently used in this physical regime, but also to optimise experimental techniques for the operation of the next generation of ultra-intense laser facilities.

The experimental work has been significantly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with first data-taking expected now for the second half of 2022. However, several publications have emerged from this award, mainly focussed on the theoretical predictions and experimental preparation of the experiment.
Exploitation Route the work will be instrumental for our understanding of high-field quantum electrodynamics and for the correct operation of the next generation of large-scale multi-PW laser facilities, including the ELI pillars (Europe) and EPAC (UK)
Sectors Aerospace

Defence and Marine

Education

Energy

Healthcare

Manufacturing

including Industrial Biotechology

 
Description the work will be instrumental for our understanding of high-field quantum electrodynamics and for the correct operation of the next generation of large-scale multi-PW laser facilities, including the ELI pillars (Europe) and EPAC (UK)
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Education,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology
Impact Types Societal

Economic

 
Description Design and testing of the positron and Compton beamlines for EPAC
Amount £63,748 (GBP)
Organisation Rutherford Appleton Laboratory 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2024 
End 03/2025
 
Description The new intensity frontier: exploring quantum electrodynamic plasmas
Amount £375,452 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/V049186/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2021 
End 05/2025
 
Title Experimental characterization of a single-shot spectrometer for high-flux, GeV-scale gamma-ray beams -- associated data 
Description Supplementary experimental data for the results presented in the paper "Experimental characterization of a single-shot spectrometer for high-flux, GeV-scale gamma-ray beams", collected, processed and analysed by the research group within the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University Belfast. Article located at DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.00.003000 Electron and positron data over 8 nominal shots are provided as: background corrected spatial lineouts (in mm) derived energy spectra (in GeV) Also included are binned energy spectra for electrons and positrons, as well as the deconvolved photon spectra. Data is presented in the format of compressed Python numpy (.npz) files. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://zenodo.org/record/8381393
 
Description DESY: novel plasma accelerators 
Organisation Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Currently collaborating on joint experiments (some published) and within the EuPRAXIA consortium for the next-generation of compact particle accelerators
Collaborator Contribution Collaborative experiments
Impact publications and on-going preparation of european large-scale funding proposals
Start Year 2017
 
Description ELI-Beamlines: collaborative experiments 
Organisation ELI Beamlines
Country Czech Republic 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution ELI-Beamlines is project partners in a recently awarded EPSRC grant (EP/V049186/1 with related proposal: EP/V049461/1). Collaborative experiments currently being designed
Collaborator Contribution ELI-Beamlines is project partners in a recently awarded EPSRC grant (EP/V049186/1 with related proposal: EP/V049461/1). Collaborative experiments currently being designed
Impact ELI-Beamlines is project partners in a recently awarded EPSRC grant (EP/V049186/1 with related proposal: EP/V049461/1). Collaborative experiments currently being designed
Start Year 2021
 
Description ELI-NP: collaborative experiments 
Organisation Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP)
Country Romania 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Commissioning experiments of the facility carried out and further experiments being planned
Collaborator Contribution Commissioning experiments of the facility carried out and further experiments being planned
Impact Commissioning experiments of the facility carried out and further experiments being planned
Start Year 2021
 
Description LUXE: collaboration with DESY and EuXFEL 
Organisation Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaboration to design experiments at the EuXFEL. Current letter of intent published: (https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.00860) and conceptual design report published (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00249-z). CD0 status granted by DESY and current submission to obtain CD1
Collaborator Contribution Collaborative work
Impact Publication of a letter of intent: (https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.00860). Current preparation of other two scientific articles. Conceptual design report published (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00249-z). CD0 status granted by DESY and current submission to obtain CD1
Start Year 2019
 
Description LUXE: collaboration with DESY and EuXFEL 
Organisation European XFEL
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaboration to design experiments at the EuXFEL. Current letter of intent published: (https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.00860) and conceptual design report published (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00249-z). CD0 status granted by DESY and current submission to obtain CD1
Collaborator Contribution Collaborative work
Impact Publication of a letter of intent: (https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.00860). Current preparation of other two scientific articles. Conceptual design report published (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00249-z). CD0 status granted by DESY and current submission to obtain CD1
Start Year 2019
 
Description Princeton: experiments at SLAC 
Organisation Princeton University
Department Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution award of a multi-million grant for collaborative experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Collaborator Contribution award of a multi-million grant for collaborative experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Impact award of a multi-million grant for collaborative experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Start Year 2018
 
Description Stanford: experiments at SLAC FACET-II 
Organisation Stanford University
Department SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Country United States 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution award of a multi-million grant for collaborative experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Collaborator Contribution award of a multi-million grant for collaborative experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Impact award of a multi-million grant for collaborative experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Start Year 2018
 
Description collaboration with Imperial College London 
Organisation Imperial College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution scientific collaboration funded with EP/V049186/1
Collaborator Contribution scientific collaboration funded with EP/V049186/1
Impact several scientific publications and collaborative experiments at national and international facilities
Start Year 2021