Investigation of classical radiation reaction with aligned crystals

Classical radiation reaction is the effect of the electromagnetic field emitted by an accelerated electric charge on the motion of the charge itself. The self-consistent underlying classical equation of motion including radiation-reaction effects, the Landau-Lifshitz equation, has never been tested experimentally, in spite of the first theoretical treatments of radiation reaction having been developed more than a century ago. Here we show that classical radiation reaction effects, in particular those due to the near electromagnetic field, as predicted by the Landau-Lifshitz equation, can be measured in principle using presently available facilities, in the energy emission spectrum of $30\text{-}\text{GeV}$ electrons crossing a $0.55$-$\text{mm}$ thick diamond crystal in the axial channeling regime. Our theoretical results indicate the feasibility of the suggested setup, e.g., at the CERN Secondary Beam Areas (SBA) beamlines.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Numerical approach to the semiclassical method of radiation emission for arbitrary electron spin and photon polarization

We show how the semiclassical formulas for radiation emission of Baier, Katkov and Strakhovenko for arbitrary initial and final spins of the electron and arbitrary polarization of the emitted photon can be rewritten in a form which numerically converges quickly. We directly compare the method in the case of a background plane wave with the result obtained by using the Volkov state solution of the Dirac equation, and confirm that we obtain the same result. We then investigate the interaction of a circularly polarized short laser pulse scattering with GeV electrons and see that the finite duration of the pulse leads to a lower transfer of circular polarization than that predicted by the known formulas in the monochromatic case. We also see how the transfer of circular polarization from the laser beam to the gamma ray beam is gradually deteriorated as the laser intensity increases, entering the nonlinear regime. However, this is shown to be recovered if the scattered photon beam is collimated to only allow for passage of photons emitted with angles smaller than $1/\gamma$ with respect to the initial electron direction, where $\gamma$ is the approximately constant Lorentz factor of the electron. The obtained formulas also allow us to answer questions regarding radiative polarization of the emitting particles. In this respect we briefly discuss an application of the present approach to the case of a bent crystal and high-energy positrons

Experimental investigation of the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect in low-Z targets

In the CERN NA63 collaboration we have addressed the question of the potential inadequacy of the commonly used Migdal formulation of the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect by measuring the photon emission by 20 and 178 GeV electrons in the range 100 MeV - 4 GeV, in targets of LowDensityPolyEthylene (LDPE), C, Al, Ti, Fe, Cu, Mo and, as a reference target, Ta. For each target and energy, a comparison between simulated values based on the LPM suppression of incoherent bremsstrahlung is shown, taking multi-photon effects into account. For these targets and energies, we find that Migdal's theoretical formulation is adequate to a precision of better than about 5%, irrespective of the target substance.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figure

Measurement of shower development and its Moli\`ere radius with a four-plane LumiCal test set-up

A prototype of a luminometer, designed for a future e+e- collider detector, and consisting at present of a four-plane module, was tested in the CERN PS accelerator T9 beam. The objective of this beam test was to demonstrate a multi-plane tungsten/silicon operation, to study the development of the electromagnetic shower and to compare it with MC simulations. The Moli\`ere radius has been determined to be 24.0 +/- 0.6 (stat.) +/- 1.5 (syst.) mm using a parametrization of the shower shape. Very good agreement was found between data and a detailed Geant4 simulation.Comment: Paper published in Eur. Phys. J., includes 25 figures and 3 Table

X-shooter, the new wide band intermediate resolution spectrograph at the ESO Very Large Telescope

X-shooter is the first 2nd generation instrument of the ESO Very Large Telescope(VLT). It is a very efficient, single-target, intermediate-resolution spectrograph that was installed at the Cassegrain focus of UT2 in 2009. The instrument covers, in a single exposure, the spectral range from 300 to 2500 nm. It is designed to maximize the sensitivity in this spectral range through dichroic splitting in three arms with optimized optics, coatings, dispersive elements and detectors. It operates at intermediate spectral resolution (R~4,000 - 17,000, depending on wavelength and slit width) with fixed echelle spectral format (prism cross-dispersers) in the three arms. It includes a 1.8"x4" Integral Field Unit as an alternative to the 11" long slits. A dedicated data reduction package delivers fully calibrated two-dimensional and extracted spectra over the full wavelength range. We describe the main characteristics of the instrument and present its performance as measured during commissioning, science verification and the first months of science operations.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) - 2018 Summary Report

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a TeV-scale high-luminosity linear $e^+e^-$ collider under development at CERN. Following the CLIC conceptual design published in 2012, this report provides an overview of the CLIC project, its current status, and future developments. It presents the CLIC physics potential and reports on design, technology, and implementation aspects of the accelerator and the detector. CLIC is foreseen to be built and operated in stages, at centre-of-mass energies of 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV and 3 TeV, respectively. CLIC uses a two-beam acceleration scheme, in which 12 GHz accelerating structures are powered via a high-current drive beam. For the first stage, an alternative with X-band klystron powering is also considered. CLIC accelerator optimisation, technical developments and system tests have resulted in an increased energy efficiency (power around 170 MW) for the 380 GeV stage, together with a reduced cost estimate at the level of 6 billion CHF. The detector concept has been refined using improved software tools. Significant progress has been made on detector technology developments for the tracking and calorimetry systems. A wide range of CLIC physics studies has been conducted, both through full detector simulations and parametric studies, together providing a broad overview of the CLIC physics potential. Each of the three energy stages adds cornerstones of the full CLIC physics programme, such as Higgs width and couplings, top-quark properties, Higgs self-coupling, direct searches, and many precision electroweak measurements. The interpretation of the combined results gives crucial and accurate insight into new physics, largely complementary to LHC and HL-LHC. The construction of the first CLIC energy stage could start by 2026. First beams would be available by 2035, marking the beginning of a broad CLIC physics programme spanning 25-30 years

Channeling, volume reflection, and volume capture study of electrons in a bent silicon crystal

We present the experimental data and analysis of experiments conducted at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory investigating the processes of channeling, volume-reflection and volume-capture along the (111) plane in a strongly bent quasimosaic silicon crystal. These phenomena were investigated at 5 energies: 3.35, 4.2, 6.3, 10.5, and 14.0 GeV with a crystal with bending radius of 0.15 m, corresponding to curvatures of 0.053, 0.066, 0.099, 0.16, and 0.22 times the critical curvature, respectively. Based on the parameters of fitting functions we have extracted important parameters describing the channeling process such as the dechanneling length, the angle of volume reflection, the surface transmission, and the widths of the distribution of channeled particles parallel and orthogonal to the plane