TY  - GEN
AV  - public
ID  - heidok29242
TI  - Strong-field QED and collisional effects in electron beam-plasma interaction
N2  - Intense high-energy particle beams are used in fundamental sciences, material sciences, relativistic laboratory astrophysics, and in the industry. Traditionally, dense collimated multi-GeV photon and electron-positron beams are generated via bremsstrahlung and Bethe-Heitler (BH) electron-positron pair creation, respectively. Recent research has focused on strong-?eld QED processes for greatly enhancing the ?ux and intensity of the generated beams. To determine the relative role of collisional and strong-?eld QED processes, we implemented bremsstrahlung and BH pair production processes in the particle-in-cell code Smilei. Using simulations, we show that a high-current ultrarelativistic electron beam interacting with a submicrometer-thick conducting foils can undergo strong self-focusing accompanied by ef?cient emission of gamma-ray photons. We study the effect of varying electron beam shape, radius and length on the ?nal radiated energy. We show that the self-generated ?elds can be strong enough that emission occurs in the strong-?eld QED regime, where a single emitted photon can carry away a signi?cant fraction of the emitting electron energy. We demonstrate that, after beam collision with multiple foils, femtosecond collimated electron and photon beams with particle number density exceeding that of a solid are obtained. This study is timely as it enables laserless strong-?eld QED investigations with a single high-current electron beam, particularly relevant for the upcoming FACET II facility.
UR  - https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/29242/
A1  - Sampath, Archana
CY  - Heidelberg
Y1  - 2020///
ER  -