Precision Measurement of Trident Production in Strong Electromagnetic Fields

TL;DR

This paper reports an experimental validation of the theoretical understanding of the trident process in strong electromagnetic fields, showing excellent agreement between data and theory at CERN for high field parameters.

Contribution

First experimental measurement of the trident process in strong fields with high $hi$ values, confirming theoretical models over a broad yield range.

Findings

Experimental data matches theoretical predictions within uncertainties.

Strong field parameter $hi$ up to 2.4 achieved.

Agreement spans nearly three orders of magnitude in yield.

Abstract

We demonstrate experimentally that the trident process $e^-\rightarrow e^-e^+e^-$ in a strong external field, with a spatial extension comparable to the effective radiation length, is well understood theoretically. The experiment, conducted at CERN, probes values for the strong field parameter $\chi$ up to 2.4. Experimental data and theoretical expectations using the Local Constant Field Approximation show remarkable agreement over almost 3 orders of magnitude in yield.