Entering the overcritical regime of nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production in collisions of bremsstrahlung $\gamma$-rays and superintense, tightly focused laser pulses

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential to observe nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production in overcritical laser fields by colliding tightly focused high-intensity lasers with bremsstrahlung gamma rays, analyzing pair yields and optimal conditions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of pair production in overcritical regimes using realistic laser and gamma-ray parameters, including effects of beam attenuation and secondary pair generation.

Findings

Optimal bremsstrahlung frequency range identified for maximum pair yield.

Wider laser focus can increase pair production despite lower intensity.

Attenuation effects become significant at high pair production rates.

Abstract

Near-future high-intensity lasers offer prospects for the observation of nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production in an overcritical field regime, where the quantum nonlinearity parameter substantially exceeds unity. This experimentally yet unexplored scenario is envisaged here to be reached via the collision of a tightly focused laser pulse with high-energy bremsstrahlung photons. We calculate the achievable number of pairs in a range of laser intensities around 10$^{23}$ W/cm$^2$ and GeV-energies of the incident bremsstrahlung-generating electron beam. We investigate under which conditions the attenuation of the $\gamma$-beam due to the production process must be taken into account and how much the second generation of created pairs contributes to the total yield. In the considered interaction regime, where the local production rate grows rather moderately with higher field intensities, it is shown that the range of mostly contributing bremsstrahlung frequencies is generally very broad. For sufficiently large values of the quantum nonlinearity parameter, an optimum domain of frequencies emerges which is located far below the spectral endpoint. Furthermore, we show that it is beneficial for achieving the optimum pair yield to increase the interaction volume by a wider laser focus at the expense of decreased field intensity.