Differential Measurement of Trident Production in Strong Electromagnetic Fields

TL;DR

This study combines experimental data and simulations to analyze trident production in strong electromagnetic fields, confirming the two-step process dominance and exploring differential energy spectra with implications for future direct process detection.

Contribution

It provides new differential analysis of trident production in strong fields, extending previous work and comparing detailed energy spectra with theoretical predictions.

Findings

Good agreement between theory and experiment for overall trident production.

Identification of a slight discrepancy in the high-energy tail of the spectrum.

Proposal for future experiments to investigate the direct process using thin crystals.

Abstract

In this paper, we present experimental results and numerical simulations of trident production, $e^-\rightarrow e^-e^+e^-$, in a strong electromagnetic field. The experiment was conducted at CERN for the purpose of probing the strong-field parameter $\chi$ up to 2.4, using a 200 GeV electron beam penetrating a 400 $\mu$m thick germanium crystal oriented along the $\langle 110\rangle$ axis. For the current experimental parameters we found that the trident process is primarily a two-step process, and show remarkable agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental data. This paper is an extension of the previously published paper (Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 071601 (2023)) and features new analysis differential in the energy of the produced positron and electron in the trident process. Even for the more demanding differential analysis, we find good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental data, while a slight discrepancy is found in the high energy tail of the trident spectrum. This discrepancy could be an indication of the direct process, but further investigation is needed due to the large uncertainties in this part of the spectrum. Finally we present a suggestion for a future experiment, aiming to probe the direct process using thin crystals.