Strong-field Quantum Electrodynamics Research Articles

Technical Design Report for the LUXE experiment

AbstractThis Technical Design Report presents a detailed description of all aspects of the LUXE (Laser Und XFEL Experiment), an experiment that will combine the high-quality and high-energy electron beam of the European XFEL with a high-intensity laser, to explore the uncharted terrain of strong-field quantum electrodynamics characterised by both high energy and high intensity, reaching the Schwinger field and beyond. The further implications for the search of physics beyond the Standard Model are also discussed.

Dense Polarized Positrons from Beam-Solid Interaction.

Relativistic positron sources with high spin polarization have important applications in nuclear and particle physics and many frontier fields. However, it is challenging to produce dense polarized positrons. Here we present a simple and effective method to achieve such a positron source by directly impinging a relativistic high-density electron beam on the surface of a solid target. During the interaction, a strong return current of plasma electrons is induced and subsequently asymmetric quasistatic magnetic fields as high as megatesla are generated along the target surface. This gives rise to strong radiative spin flips and multiphoton processes, thus leading to efficient generation of copious polarized positrons. With three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we demonstrate the production of a dense highly polarized multi-GeV positron beam with an average spin polarization above 40% and nC-scale charge per shot. This offers a novel route for the studies of laserless strong-field quantum electrodynamics physics and for the development of high-energy polarized positron sources.

Light-Matter Interaction near the Schwinger Limit Using Tightly Focused Doppler-Boosted Lasers.

Strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SF QED) is a burgeoning research topic dealing with electromagnetic fields comparable to the Schwinger field (≈1.32×10^{18} V/m). While most past and proposed experiments rely on reaching this field in the rest frame of relativistic particles, the Schwinger limit could also be approached in the laboratory frame by focusing to its diffraction limit the light reflected by a plasma mirror irradiated by a multipetawatt laser. We explore the interaction between such intense light and matter with particle-in-cell simulations. We find that the collision with a relativistic electron beam would enable the study of the nonperturbative regime of SF QED, while the interaction with a solid target leads to a profusion of SF QED effects that retroact on the interaction. In both cases, relativistic attosecond pair jets with high densities are formed.

Identifying quantum effects in seeded QED cascades via laser-driven residual gas in vacuum

The discrete and stochastic nature of the processes in the strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SF-QED) regime distinguishes them from classical ones. An important approach to identifying the SF-QED features is through the interaction of extremely intense lasers with plasma. Here, we investigate the seeded QED cascades driven by two counter-propagating laser pulses in the background of residual gases in a vacuum chamber via numerical simulations. We focus on the statistical distributions of positron yields from repeated simulations under various conditions. By increasing the gas density, the positron yields become more deterministic. Although the distribution stems from both the quantum stochastic effects and the fluctuations of the environment, the quantum stochastic effects can be identified via the width of the distribution and the exceptional yields, both of which are higher than the quantum-averaged results. The proposed method provides a statistical approach to identifying the quantum stochastic signatures in SFQED processes using high-power lasers and residual gases in the vacuum chamber.

QScatter: numerical framework for fast prediction of particle distributions in electron-laser scattering

The new generation of multi-PetaWatt laser facilities will allow tests of strong field quantum electrodynamics (QED), as well as provide an opportunity for novel photon and lepton sources. The first experiments are planned to study the (nearly) head-on scattering of intense, focused laser pulses with either relativistic electron beams or high-energy photon sources. In this work, we present a numerical framework that can provide fast predictions of the asymptotic particle and photon distributions after the scattering. The method detailed in this manuscript can include multiple features such as spatial and temporal misalignment between the laser and the scattering beam, broadband electron beams, and beam divergence. The expected mean energy, energy spread, divergence or other observables are calculated by combining an analytical description and numerical integration. This method can provide results within minutes on a personal computer, which would otherwise require full-scale 3D QED-PIC simulations using thousands of cores. The model, which has been compiled into an open-source code QScatter, may be used to support the analysis of large-size data sets from high-repetition rate experiments, leveraging its speed for optimization or reconstruction of experimental parameters.

Drift-free, 11 fs pulse delay stability in dual-arm PW-class laser systems

Abstract Simultaneous ultra-intense pulses at petawatt laser facilities enable a broad range of experiments in nuclear photonics and strong field quantum electrodynamics. These experiments often require very precise control of the time delays between pulses. We report measurements of the time delay between the two 1 PW outputs of the Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility in Romania. The short-term standard deviation of the time delay was approximately half of the pulse duration of 23 fs, and the average delay drifted with up to 100 fs/h. The drift and sporadic delay jumps were corrected using a feedback loop, which reduced the long-term standard deviation of the delay close to its short-term value. These results imply that in ELI-NP experiments using two simultaneous pulses, a temporal overlap of better than half of the pulse duration can be achieved for more than two thirds of the shots, which would enable high data rate experiments using simultaneous petawatt pulses.

Experimental and theoretical research progress of <sup>2</sup>P<sub>1/2 </sub> – <sup>2</sup>P<sub>3/2</sub> transitions of highly charged boron-like ions

The precise measurement of the fine structure and radiative transition properties of highly charged ions (HCI) is essential for testing fundamental physical models, including strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects, electron correlation effects, relativistic effects, and nuclear effects. These measurements also provide critical atomic physics parameters for astrophysics and fusion plasma physics. Compared with the extensively studied hydrogen-like and lithium-like ion systems, boron-like ions exhibit significant contributions in terms of relativistic and QED effects in their fine structure forbidden transitions. High-precision experimental measurements and theoretical calculations of these systems provide important avenues for further testing fundamental physical models in multi-electron systems. Additionally, boron-like ions are considered promising candidates for HCI optical clocks. This paper presents the latest advancements in experimental and theoretical research on the ground state <sup>2</sup>P<sub>3/2</sub>—<sup>2</sup>P<sub>1/2</sub> transition in boron-like ions, and summarizes the current understanding of their fine and hyperfine structures. It also discusses a proposed experimental setup for measuring the hyperfine splitting of boron-like ions by using an electron beam ion trap combined with high-resolution spectroscopy. This proposal aims to provide a reference for future experimental research on the hyperfine splitting of boron-like ions, to test the QED effects with higher precision, extract the radius of nuclear magnetization distribution, and validate relevant nuclear structure models.

Dielectronic recombination experiment of Na-like Kr<sup>25+</sup> at heavy ion storage ring CSRe

The experimental study of precision spectroscopy of dielectronic recombination (DR) of highly charged ions is not only important for astronomical plasma and fusion plasma, but also can be used as a new precision spectroscopy to test the strong-field quantum electrodynamic effect, measure isotope shift, and extract the radius of atomic nuclei. An specially designed electron beam energy detuning system for electron-ion recombination precision spectroscopy experiments has been installed on the heavy ion storage ring CSRe in Lanzhou, China, where the electron-ion collision energy in the center-of-mass system can be detuned to 1 keV, and an independently-developed plastic scintillator detector and multiwire proportional chamber detector have been installed downstream of the electron cooler of the CSRe for detecting recombined ions. The multiwire proportional chamber detector has the ability to non-destructively monitor the profile of the ion beam in real-time while acquiring the recombined ion counts, providing guidance for optimizing the ion beam. On this basis, the first test experiment on dielectronic recombination of Kr<sup>25+</sup> ions is carried out at the CSRe, and the dielectronic recombination rate coefficients in a range of 0–70 eV in the frame of center-of-mass are measured. In order to fully understand the experimental results, we calculate the dielectronic recombination rate coefficient of the Kr<sup>25+</sup> ion by using the flexible atomic code (FAC) and make a detailed comparison with the experimental result, showing that they are in good agreement with each other, and only the resonance energy values of the two resonance peaks at 1.695 eV and 2.573 eV are significantly different. In addition, the DR resonance energy values and intensities are obtained by fitting the experimental results in a range of 0–35 eV, and we find that the transition 3s→4l (∆<i>n</i> = 1) contributes significantly to the experimental spectral lines. Furthermore, we compare the plasma rate coefficients derived from the DR rate coefficients with those derived from the AUTOSTRUCTURE and FAC theories, which differ by 20 percent in a temperature range less than 10<sup>6</sup> K. The experimental results show that the DR experimental platform of the CSRe has very good stability and reproducibility, and can provide support for the future DR experiments of highly charged ion, i.e. for testing strong-field quantum electrodynamics effect and measuring the properties of atomic nuclei.

Optimized event generator for strong-field QED simulations within the hi-[formula omitted] framework

Probabilistic generation of photons and electron–positron pairs due to the processes of strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SFQED) is often the most resource-intensive part of the kinetic simulations required in order to model current and future experimental studies at high-intensity laser facilities. To reduce its computational demands one can exploit tabulation of the precomputed rates, time-step sub-cycling, dynamic down-sampling of particle/photon ensembles and other approaches. As the culmination of previous improvements, the method described here provides the opportunity to make the minimal possible number of rate computations per QED event. In some of our tests, this method was shown to increase performance by more than an order of magnitude. The computational routine is publicly available as a part of the open-source framework hi-χ designed as a Python-controlled toolbox for collaborative development.

Stringent test of QED with hydrogen-like tin

Inner-shell electrons naturally sense the electric field close to the nucleus, which can reach extreme values beyond 1015 V cm−1 for the innermost electrons1. Especially in few-electron, highly charged ions, the interaction with the electromagnetic fields can be accurately calculated within quantum electrodynamics (QED), rendering these ions good candidates to test the validity of QED in strong fields. Consequently, their Lamb shifts were intensively studied in the past several decades2,3. Another approach is the measurement of gyromagnetic factors (g factors) in highly charged ions4–7. However, so far, either experimental accuracy or small field strength in low-Z ions5,6 limited the stringency of these QED tests. Here we report on our high-precision, high-field test of QED in hydrogen-like 118Sn49+. The highly charged ions were produced with the Heidelberg electron beam ion trap (EBIT)8 and injected into the ALPHATRAP Penning-trap setup9, in which the bound-electron g factor was measured with a precision of 0.5 parts per billion (ppb). For comparison, we present state-of-the-art theory calculations, which together test the underlying QED to about 0.012%, yielding a stringent test in the strong-field regime. With this measurement, we challenge the best tests by means of the Lamb shift and, with anticipated advances in the g-factor theory, surpass them by more than an order of magnitude.

Simulations of spin/polarization-resolved laser–plasma interactions in the nonlinear QED regime

Strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SF-QED) plays a crucial role in ultraintense laser–matter interactions and demands sophisticated techniques to understand the related physics with new degrees of freedom, including spin angular momentum. To investigate the impact of SF-QED processes, we have introduced spin/polarization-resolved nonlinear Compton scattering, nonlinear Breit–Wheeler, and vacuum birefringence processes into our particle-in-cell (PIC) code. In this article, we provide details of the implementation of these SF-QED modules and share known results that demonstrate exact agreement with existing single-particle codes. By coupling normal PIC simulations with spin/polarization-resolved SF-QED processes, we create a new theoretical platform to study strong-field physics in currently running or planned petawatt or multi-petawatt laser facilities.

Magnetic pinching of relativistic particle beams: a new approach to strong-field QED physics

Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a foundation of modern physics, yet access to the strong-field QED regime in the laboratory remains a formidable challenge. Currently, high-power lasers at the multi-petawatt level and above are generally believed to be an important approach to test QED physics. Here, we present a different approach by use of an electron beam self-pinched to near-solid-density. The beam self-pinching is realized while it transports through a properly designed hollow cone target, where strong azimuthal magnetic fields are generated by the beam-induced plasma return currents at the inner surface of the cone target. In this way, the beam diameter can be reduced by more than an order of magnitude down to submicron and its density is increased by hundreds of times. The produced ultradense electron beams can unlock a new regime of QED-dominated beam–plasma interactions, for example, more than 60% of the beam energy can be converted into GeV gamma-rays with unprecedented brilliance when such a beam passes through a thin solid foil. Moreover, with proper parameter design, this beam-focusing scheme can also be applied to positron beams and thus may find applications in broad areas, such as particle colliders and strong-field physics.

Strong-field vacuum polarisation with high energy lasers

When photons propagate in vacuum they may fluctuate into matter pairs thus allowing the vacuum to be polarised. This linear effect leads to charge screening and renormalisation. When exposed to an intense background field a nonlinear effect can arise when the vacuum is polarised by higher powers of the background. This nonlinearity breaks the superposition principle of classical electrodynamics, allowing for light-by-light scattering of probe and background photons mediated through virtual pairs dressed by the background. Vacuum polarisation is a strong-field effect when all orders of interaction between the virtual pair and the background must be taken into account. In this investigation we show that multiple scattering processes of this type may be observed by utilising high-energy laser pulses with long pulse duration, such as are available at facilities like ELI Beamlines. In combination with appropriate sources of high-energy probe photons, multiple probe-background light-by-light scattering allows for testing the genuine nonlinear regime of strong-field quantum electrodynamics. This provides access to the uncharted non-perturbative regime beyond the weak-field limit.

SFQEDtoolkit: A high-performance library for the accurate modeling of strong-field QED processes in PIC and Monte Carlo codes

Strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SFQED) processes are central in determining the dynamics of particles and plasmas in extreme electromagnetic fields such as those present in the vicinity of compact astrophysical objects or generated with ultraintense lasers. SFQEDtoolkit is an open source library designed to allow users for a straightforward implementation of SFQED processes in existing particle-in-cell (PIC) and Monte Carlo codes. Through advanced function approximation techniques, high-energy photon emission and electron-positron pair creation probability rates and energy distributions are calculated within the locally-constant-field approximation (LCFA) as well as with more advanced models [Phys. Rev. A 99, 022125 (2019)]. SFQEDtoolkit is designed to provide users with high-performance and high-accuracy, and neat examples showing its usage are provided. In the near future, SFQEDtoolkit will be enriched to model the angular distribution of the generated particles, i.e., beyond the commonly employed collinear emission approximation, as well as to model spin and polarization dependent SFQED processes. Notably, the generality and flexibility of the presented function approximation approach makes it suitable to be employed in other areas of physics, chemistry and computer science. Program summaryProgram Title: SFQEDtoolkit (version 1.0)CPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/j7mhj3cg3m.1Developer's repository link:https://github.com/QuantumPlasma/SFQEDtoolkitLicensing provisions: GPLv3Programming language: C++, FortranNature of problem: The accurate simulation of strong-field QED processes in the interaction of particles or plasmas with strong electromagnetic fields is critical for present and future experiments with ultraintense lasers as well as to unveil the dynamics around compact astrophysical objects. State-of-the-art PIC and Monte Carlo codes implement strong-field QED processes by means of lookup tables, where the approximated function is evaluated on a fixed set of points. This typically results in numerical artifacts such as stairlike structures in the approximated function, and in a reduced efficiency when large size lookup tables are necessary. An easily implementable open-source accurate and efficient simulation tool is required to address problems at the high-intensity frontier of plasma physics and astrophysics.Solution method: Strong-field QED process rates and particle distributions are calculated by leveraging advanced approximation methods based on variable and function transformation, asymptotic expansions as well as Chebyshev polynomial expansions. This provides a numerically-stable and efficient approach that allows us to overcome all limitations of existing methods based on standard lookup tables.

Probing strong-field QED in beam-plasma collisions

Ongoing progress in laser and accelerator technology opens new possibilities in high-field science, notably to investigate the largely unexplored strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SFQED) regime where electron-positron pairs can be created directly from light-matter or even light-vacuum interactions. Laserless strategies such as beam-beam collisions have also been proposed to access the nonperturbative limit of SFQED. Here we report on a concept to probe SFQED by harnessing the interaction between a high-charge, ultrarelativistic electron beam and a solid conducting target. When impinging onto the target surface, the beam self fields are reflected, partly or fully, depending on the beam shape; in the rest frame of the beam electrons, these fields can exceed the Schwinger field, thus triggering SFQED effects such as quantum nonlinear inverse Compton scattering and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler electron-positron pair creation. Through reduced modeling and kinetic numerical simulations, we show that this single-beam setup can achieve interaction conditions similar to those envisioned in beam-beam collisions, but in a simpler and more controllable way owing to the automatic overlap of the beam and driving fields. This scheme thus eases the way to precision studies of SFQED and is also a promising milestone towards laserless studies of nonperturbative SFQED.

Proof-of-Principle Experiment for Testing Strong-Field Quantum Electrodynamics with Exotic Atoms: High Precision X-Ray Spectroscopy of Muonic Neon.

To test bound-state quantum electrodynamics (BSQED) in the strong-field regime, we have performed high precision x-ray spectroscopy of the 5g-4f and 5f- 4d transitions (BSQED contribution of 2.4 and 5.2eV, respectively) of muonic neon atoms in the low-pressure gas phase without bound electrons. Muonic atoms have been recently proposed as an alternative to few-electron high-Z ions for BSQED tests by focusing on circular Rydberg states where nuclear contributions are negligibly small. We determined the 5g_{9/2}- 4f_{7/2} transition energy to be 6297.08±0.04(stat)±0.13(syst) eV using superconducting transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters (5.2-5.5eV FWHM resolution), which agrees well with the most advanced BSQED theoretical prediction of 6297.26eV.

Extreme focusing of high power x-ray lasers to relativistic intensity with a concave plasma lens

The intensity of present x-ray lasers is still far from relativistic due to equipment damage by the powerful radiation involved in the generation process. We propose to use a microscopic concave plasma lens to tightly focus terawatt x-ray pulses to relativistic intensity by avoiding the destructive instabilities arising from the laser-plasma interaction in the focusing process. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that an intense x-ray laser pulse can be focused to a tiny spot of the wavelength scale at ultrahigh intensity while well preserving its original spatiotemporal profile. The resulting pulse can exceed the relativistic intensity threshold [$(1.37\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{24}/{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{nm}}^{2})\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$, with ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathrm{nm}}$ being the wavelength normalized by nanometers] by two orders of magnitude. Such intense nano-sized x-ray pulses can be useful for exploring nonlinear phenomena in the strong-field quantum electrodynamics regime, as well as in high-energy-density science and astrophysics.

Creating pair plasmas with observable collective effects

Although existing technology cannot yet directly produce fields at the Schwinger level, experimental facilities can already explore strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED) phenomena by taking advantage of the Lorentz boost of energetic electron beams. Recent studies show that QED cascades can create electron–positron pairs at sufficiently high density to exhibit collective plasma effects. Signatures of collective pair plasma effects can appear in exquisite detail through plasma-induced frequency upshifts and chirps in the laser spectrum. Maximizing the magnitude of the QED plasma signature demands high pair density and low pair energy, which suits the configuration of colliding an over energy-density electron beam with a 1022– intensity laser pulse. The collision creates pairs that have a large plasma frequency, made even larger as they slow down or reverse direction due to both the radiation reaction and laser pressure. This paper explains at a tutorial level the key properties of the QED cascades and laser frequency upshift, and at the same time finds the minimum parameters that can be used to produce observable QED plasma.

All-optical nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production with γ -flash photons

High-power laser facilities give experimental access to fundamental strong-field quantum electrodynamics processes. A key effect to be explored is the nonlinear Breit-Wheeler process: the conversion of high-energy photons into electron-positron pairs through the interaction with a strong electromagnetic field. A major challenge to observing nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production experimentally is first having a suitable source of high-energy photons. In this paper we outline a simple all-optical setup which efficiently generates photons through the so-called $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-flash mechanism by irradiating a solid target with a high-power laser. We consider the collision of these photons with a secondary laser and systematically discuss the prospects for exploring the nonlinear Breit-Wheeler process at current and next-generation high-power laser facilities.

X-ray polarimetry and its application to strong-field quantum electrodynamics

Abstract Polarimetry is a highly sensitive method to quantify changes of the polarization state of light when passing through matter and is therefore widely applied in material science. The progress of synchrotron and X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) sources has led to significant developments of X-ray polarizers, opening perspectives for new applications of polarimetry to study source and beamline parameters as well as sample characteristics. X-ray polarimetry has shown to date a polarization purity of less than $1.4\times {10}^{-11}$ , enabling the detection of very small signals from ultrafast phenomena. A prominent application is the detection of vacuum birefringence. Vacuum birefringence is predicted in quantum electrodynamics and is expected to be probed by combining an XFEL with a petawatt-class optical laser. We review how source and optical elements affect X-ray polarimeters in general and which qualities are required for the detection of vacuum birefringence.