Low emittance pion beams generation from bright photons and relativistic protons

TL;DR

This paper explores the generation of low emittance pion beams using high-brilliance photon beams and relativistic protons, highlighting potential for producing high-quality muon and neutrino beams at TeV energies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for low emittance pion beam production via photo-production in a relativistic boosted frame, combining advanced FELs with high-energy proton beams.

Findings

Analysis of pion and electron/positron production kinematics

Evaluation of pion beam brightness in collider scenarios

Proposal of a small-scale demonstrator setup

Abstract

Present availability of high brilliance photon beams as those produced by X-ray Free Electron Lasers in combination with intense TeV proton beams typical of the Large Hadron Collider makes it possible to conceive the generation of pion beams via photo-production in a highly relativistic Lorentz boosted frame: the main advantage is the low emittance attainable and a TeV-class energy for the generated pions, that may be an interesting option for the production of low emittance muon and neutrino beams. We will describe the kinematics of the two classes of dominant events, i.e. the pion photo-production and the electron/positron pair production, neglecting other small cross-section possible events like Compton and muon pair production. Based on the phase space distributions of the pion and muon beams we will analyze the pion beam brightness achievable in three examples, based on advanced high efficiency high repetition rate FELs coupled to LHC or Future Circular Collider (FCC) proton beams, together with the study of a possible small scale demonstrator based on a Compton Source coupled to a Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) proton beam.