{"id":6828,"date":"2020-01-13T12:48:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T12:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/particlebites.com\/?p=6828"},"modified":"2020-01-13T12:48:49","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T12:48:49","slug":"riding-the-wave-to-new-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.particlebites.com\/?p=6828","title":{"rendered":"Riding the wave to new physics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article title: <\/strong>\u201cParticle physics applications of the AWAKE acceleration scheme\u201d<\/p>\n

Authors: <\/strong>A. Caldwell, J. Chappell, P. Crivelli, E. Depero, J. Gall, S. Gninenko, E. Gschwendtner, A. Hartin, F. Keeble, J. Osborne, A. Pardons, A. Petrenko, A. Scaachi , and M. Wing<\/p>\n

Reference: <\/strong>arXiv:1812.11164<\/a><\/p>\n

On the energy frontier, the search for new physics remains a contentious issue \u2013 do we continue to build bigger, more powerful colliders? Or is this a too costly (or too impractical) an endeavor? The standard method of accelerating charged particles remains in the realm of radio-frequency (RF) cavities, possessing an electric field strength of about 100 Megavolts per meter, such as that proposed for the future Compact Linear Accelerator (CLIC) at CERN aiming for center-of-mass energies in the multi-TeV regime. Such a technology in the linear fashion is nothing new, being a key part of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (California, USA) for decades before it\u2019s shutdown around the early millennium. However, a device such as CLIC would still require more than ten times the space of SLAC, predicted to come in at around 10-50 km. Not only that, the walls of the cavities are based on normal conducting material and so tend to heat up very quickly and so are typically run in short pulses. And we haven\u2019t even mentioned the costs yet!<\/p>\n

Physicists are a smart bunch, however, and they\u2019re always on the lookout for new technologies, new techniques and unique ways of looking at the same problem. As you may have guessed already, the limiting factor determining the length required for sufficient linear acceleration is the field gradient. But what if there were a way to achieve hundreds of times that of a standard RF cavity? The answer has been found in plasma wakefields \u2013 separated bunches of dense protons with the potential to drive electrons up to gigaelectronvolt energies in a matter of meters!<\/p>\n

Wakefields of plasma are by no means a new idea, being proposed first at least four decades ago. However, most examples have demonstrated this idea using electrons or lasers to \u2018drive\u2019 the wakefield in the plasma. More specifically, this is known as the \u2018drive beam\u2019 which does not actually participate in the acceleration but provides the large electric field gradient for what is known as the \u2018witness beam\u2019 – the electrons. However, this has not been demonstrated using protons as the drive beam to penetrate much further into the plasma \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n

In fact, very recently CERN has demonstrated proton-driven wakefield technology for the first time during the 2016-2018 run of AWAKE<\/strong> (which stands for Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment, naturally), accelerating electrons to 2 GeV in only 10 m. The protons that drive the electrons are injected from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) into a Rubidium gas, ionizing the atoms and altering their uniform electron distribution into an osscilating wavelike state. The electrons that \u2018witness\u2019 the wakefield then \u2018ride the wave\u2019 much like a surfer at the forefront of a water wave. Right now, AWAKE is just a proof of concept, however plans to scale up to 10 GeV electrons in the coming years could hopefully pave the pathway to LHC level proton energies \u2013 shooting electrons up to TeV energies!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 1: A layout of AWAKE (Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this article, we focus instead on the interesting physics applications of such a device. Bunches of electrons with energies up to TeV energies is so far unprecedented. The most obvious application would of course be a high energy linear electron-positron collider. However, let\u2019s focus on some of the more novel experimental applications that are being discussed today, particularly those that could benefit from such a strong electromagnetic presence in almost a \u2018tabletop physics\u2019 configuration.<\/p>\n

Awake in the dark<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most popular considerations when it comes to dark matter is the existence of dark photons<\/strong>, mediating interactions between dark and visible sector physics (see \u201cThe lighter side of Dark Matter<\/a>\u201d for more details). Finding them has been the subject of recent experimental and theoretical approaches, even with high-energy electron fixed-target experiments already. Figure 2 shows such an interaction, where $latex A^\\prime$ represents the dark photon. One experiment based at CERN known as the NA64 already searches for dark photons through incident electrons on a target, utilizing interactions of the SPS proton beam. In the standard picture, the dark photon is searched through the missing energy signature, leaving the detector without interacting but escaping with a portion of the energy. The energy of the electrons is of course not the issue when the SPS is used, however the number of electrons is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 2: Dark photon production from a fixed-target experiment with an electron-positron final state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Assuming one could work with the AWAKE scheme, one could achieve numbers of electrons on target orders of magnitude larger \u2013 clearly enhancing the reach for masses and mixing of the dark photon. The idea would be to introduce a high number of energetic electron bunches to a tungsten target with a following 10 m long volume for the dark photon to decay (in accordance with Figure 2). Because of the opposite charges of the electron and positron, the final decay products can then be separated with magnetic fields and hence one can ultimately determine the dark photon invariant mass.<\/p>\n

Figure 3 shows how much of an impact a larger number of on-target electrons would make for the discovery reach in the plane of kinetic mixing $latex \\epsilon$ vs mass of the dark photon $latex m_{A^\\prime}$ (again we refer the reader to \u201cThe lighter side of Dark Matter<\/a>\u201d for explanations of these parameters). With the existing NA64 setup, one can already see new areas of the parameter space being explored for 1010<\/sup> \u2013 1013<\/sup> electrons. However a significant difference can be seen with the electron bunches provided by the AWAKE configuration, with an ambitious limit shown by the 1016<\/sup> electrons at 1 TeV.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 3: Exclusion limits in the $latex \\epsilon – m_{A^\\prime}$ plane for the dark photon decaying to an electron-positron final state. The NA64 experiment using larger numbers of electrons is shown in the colored non-solid curves from 1010<\/sup> to 1013<\/sup> of total on-target electrons. The solid colored lines show the AWAKE provided electron bunches with 1015<\/sup> and 1016<\/sup> at 50 GeV and 1016<\/sup> at 1 TeV.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Light, but strong<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quantum Electrodynamics (or QED, for short), describing the interaction between fundamental electrons and photons, is perhaps the most precisely measured and well-studied theory out there, showing agreement with experiment in a huge range of situations. However, there are some extreme phenomena out in the universe where the strength of certain fields become so great that our current understanding starts to break down. For the electromagnetic field this can in fact be quantified as the Schwinger limit<\/strong>, above which it is expected that nonlinear field effects start to become significant. Typically at a strength around 1018<\/sup> V\/m, the nonlinear corrections to the equations of QED would predict the appearance of electron-positron pairs spontaneously created from such an enormous field.<\/p>\n

One of the predictions is the multiphoton interaction with electrons in the initial state. In linear QED, the standard $latex 2 \\rightarrow 2$ scattering of $latex e^- + \\gamma \\rightarrow e^- + \\gamma$ for example is only possible. In a strong field regime, however, the initial state can then open up to $latex n$ numbers of photons. Given a strong enough laser pulse, multiple laser photons can interact with electrons and investigate this incredible region of physics. We show this in Figure 4.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 4: Multiphoton interaction with an electron (left) and electron-positron production from photon absorption (right). $\\latex n$ here is the number of photons absorbed in the initial state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The good and bad news is that this had already been performed as far back as the 90s in the E144 experiment at SLAC, using 50 GeV electron bunches \u2013 however unable to reach the critical field value in the electrons frame of rest. AWAKE could certainly provide highly energetic electrons and allow for different kinematic experimental reach. Could this provide the first experimental measurement of the Schwinger critical field?<\/p>\n

Of course, these are just a few considerations amongst a plethora of uses for the production of energetic electrons over such short distances. However as physicists desperately continue their search for new physics, it may be time to consider the use of new acceleration technologies on a larger scale as AWAKE has already shown its scalability. Wakefield acceleration may even establish itself with a fully-developed new physics search plan of its own.<\/p>\n

References and further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n