Matter creation via gamma-gamma collider driving by 10 PW laser pulses

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel gamma-gamma collider driven by 10 PW laser pulses to observe matter creation from light, achieving high signal-to-noise ratios and generating over 320 million positrons in a controlled laboratory setting.

Contribution

It introduces a new scheme for a gamma-gamma collider using high-power lasers and narrow tubes, enabling laboratory observation of matter creation via the Breit Wheeler process.

Findings

Over 3.2×10^8 positrons generated per pulse

Signal-to-noise ratio exceeds 2000

First laboratory realization of gamma-gamma collider

Abstract

The nature of matter creation is one of the most basic processes in the universe. According to the quantum electrodynamics theory, matters can be created from pure light through the Breit Wheeler (BW) process. The multi-photon BW process has been demonstrated in 1997 at the SLAC, yet the two-photon BW process has never been observed in the laboratory. Interest has been aroused to investigate this process with lasers due to the developments of the laser technology and the laser based electron accelerators. The laser based proposals may be achieved with NIF and ELI, provided that the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of BW is high enough for observation. Here, we present a clean channel to observe the matter creation via a gamma-gamma collider by using the collimated {\gamma}-ray pulses generated in the interaction between 10-PW lasers and narrow tubes. More than $3.2\times 10^8$ positrons with a divergence angle of $\sim 7$ degrees can be created in a single pulse, and the S/N is higher than 2000. This scheme, which provides the first realization of gamma-gamma collider in the laboratory, would pave the developments of quantum electrodynamics, high-energy physics and laboratory astrophysics.