On Seminal HEDP Research Opportunities Enabled by Colocating Multi-Petawatt Laser with High-Density Electron Beams

TL;DR

This paper discusses the scientific opportunities of collocating multi-Petawatt lasers with high-density electron beams to explore extreme high-energy-density physics environments and quantum electrodynamic phenomena.

Contribution

It highlights the potential of a multi-beam facility combining high-power lasers and dense electron beams for groundbreaking research in extreme physics.

Findings

Potential to generate unprecedented electron-positron pair plasma densities

Enables exploration of strong-field quantum and plasma effects

Facilitates study of vacuum breakdown at extreme intensities

Abstract

The scientific community is currently witnessing an expensive and worldwide race to achieve the highest possible light intensity. Within the next decade this effort is expected to reach nearly $10^{24}\,\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{cm^2}$ in the lab frame by focusing of 100 PW, near-infrared lasers. A major driving force behind this effort is the possibility to study strong-field vacuum breakdown and an accompanying electron-positron pair plasma via a quantum electrodynamic (QED) cascade [Edwin Cartlidge, "The light fantastic", Science 359, 382 (2018)]. Whereas Europe is focusing on all-optical 10 PW-class laser facilities (e.g., Apollon and ELI), China is already planning on co-locating a 100 PW laser system with a 25 keV superconducting XFEL and thus implicitly also a high-quality electron beam [Station of Extreme Light (SEL) at the Shanghai Superintense-Ultrafast Lasers Facility (SULF)]. This white paper elucidates the seminal scientific opportunities facilitated by colliding dense, multi-GeV electron beams with multi-PW optical laser pulses. Such a multi-beam facility would enable the experimental exploration of extreme HEDP environments by generating electron-positron pair plasmas with unprecedented densities and temperatures, where the interplay between strong-field quantum and collective plasma effects becomes decisive.