Reaching extreme fields in laser-electron beam collisions with XUV laser light

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel plasma wakefield acceleration method using XUV laser light to reach extreme quantum regimes with high-energy electrons and photons, enabling new tests of strong-field quantum electrodynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to achieve high quantum nonlinearity parameters using photon acceleration into the XUV range, reducing radiative losses and enabling exploration of non-perturbative QED regimes.

Findings

Photon acceleration into XUV allows multi-GeV electrons with high $\chi_e$

Reduced radiative losses increase probability of high-$\chi_e$ photon production

Photon spectra can probe breakdown of strong-field QED theory

Abstract

Plasma-based particle accelerators promise to extend the revolutionary work performed with conventional particle accelerators to studies with smaller footprints, lower costs, and higher energies. Here, we propose a new approach to access an unexplored regime of strong-field quantum electrodynamics by plasma wakefield acceleration of both charged particles and photons. Instead of using increasingly powerful accelerators and lasers, we show that photon acceleration of optical pulses into the extreme ultraviolet allows multi-GeV electrons to reach quantum nonlinearity parameters $\chi_e \gg 10$ with a high probability due to the reduced radiative losses. A significant fraction of photons produced in high-$\chi_e$ regions will propagate to detectors without generating pairs because of the reduction in the quantum rates. The photon spectra obtained may be used to characterize the predicted breakdown of strong-field quantum electrodynamics theory as it enters the fully non-perturbative regime.