Laser-plasma-based linear collider using hollow plasma channels

A linear electron–positron collider based on laser-plasma accelerators using hollow plasma channels is considered. Laser propagation and energy depletion in the hollow channel is discussed, as well as the overall efficiency of the laser-plasma accelerator. Example parameters are presented for a 1-TeV and 3-TeV center-of-mass collider based on laser-plasma accelerators

Efficient electron injection into plasma waves using higher-orderlaser modes

Using higher-order transverse laser modes as drivers forplasma wave excitation, and, in particular, using a ring laser beam withmaximum intensity off-axis, results in reversal of the focusinganddefocusing phase regions in a laser wakefield accelerator. Thisresults in improved performance of self-trapping and laser injectionschemes. Specifically, the trapping threshold required foropticalinjection is decreased and the maximum energy gain of the trappedelectrons is increased. This scheme could also be of interest for thegeneration of ring electron beams or for beam conditioning

Laser-Plasma Wakefield Acceleration with Higher Order Laser Modes

Laser-plasma collider designs point to staging of multiple accelerator stages at the 10 GeV level, which are to be developed on the upcoming BELLA laser, while Thomson Gamma source designs use GeV stages, both requiring efficiency and low emittance. Design and scaling of stages operating in the quasi-linear regime to address these needs are presented using simulations in the VORPAL framework. In addition to allowing symmetric acceleration of electrons and positrons, which is important for colliders, this regime has the property that the plasma wakefield is proportional to the transverse gradient of the laser intensity profile. We demonstrate use of higher order laser modes to tailor the laser pulse and hence the transverse focusing forces in the plasma. In particular, we show that by using higher order laser modes, we can reduce the focusing fields and hence increase the matched electron beam radius, which is important to increased charge and efficiency, while keeping the low bunch emittance required for applications

The BErkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA): A 10 GeV Laser Plasma Accelerator

An overview is presented of the design of a 10 GeV laser plasma accelerator (LPA) that will be driven by a PW-class laser system and of the BELLA Project, which has as its primary goal to build and install the required Ti:sapphire laser system for the acceleration experiments. The basic design of the 10 GeV stage aims at operation in the quasi-linear regime, where the laser excited wakes are largely sinusoidal and offer the possibility of accelerating both electrons and positrons. Simulations show that a 10 GeV electron beam can be generated in a meter scale plasma channel guided LPA operating at a density of about 1017 cm-3 and powered by laser pulses containing 30-40 J of energy in a 50- 200 fs duration pulse, focused to a spotsize of 50-100 micron. The lay-out of the facility and laser system will be presented as well as the progress on building the facility

High Quality Electron Bunches up to 1 GeV from Laser Wakefield Acceleration at LBNL

Experiments at the LOASIS laboratory of LBNL havedemonstrated production of 100 MeV to 1 GeV electron bunches with lowenergy spread and low divergence from laser wakefield acceleration. Theradiation pressure of a 10 TW laser pulse, guided over 10 diffractionranges by a few-mm long plasma density channel, was used to drive anintense plasma wave (wakefield), producing electron bunches with energieson the order of 100 MeV and acceleration gradients on the order of 100GV/m. Beam energy was increased from 100 MeV to 1 GeV by using a few-cmlong guiding channel at lower density, driven by a 40 TW laser,demonstrating the anticipated scaling to higher beam energies. Particlesimulations indicate that the low energy spread beams were produced fromself-trapped electrons through the interplay of trapping, loading, anddephasing. Other experiments and simulations are also underway to controlinjection of particles into the wake, and hence improve beam quality andstability further

Measurement of the diffractive structure function in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

This paper presents an analysis of the inclusive properties of diffractive deep inelastic scattering events produced in $ep$ interactions at HERA. The events are characterised by a rapidity gap between the outgoing proton system and the remaining hadronic system. Inclusive distributions are presented and compared with Monte Carlo models for diffractive processes. The data are consistent with models where the pomeron structure function has a hard and a soft contribution. The diffractive structure function is measured as a function of \xpom, the momentum fraction lost by the proton, of $\beta$, the momentum fraction of the struck quark with respect to \xpom, and of $Q^2$. The \xpom dependence is consistent with the form \xpoma where $a~=~1.30~\pm~0.08~(stat)~^{+~0.08}_{-~0.14}~(sys)$ in all bins of $\beta$ and $Q^2$. In the measured $Q^2$ range, the diffractive structure function approximately scales with $Q^2$ at fixed $\beta$. In an Ingelman-Schlein type model, where commonly used pomeron flux factor normalisations are assumed, it is found that the quarks within the pomeron do not saturate the momentum sum rule.Comment: 36 pages, latex, 11 figures appended as uuencoded fil

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio