James E. Spencer

POSITRON PRODUCTION IN MULTIPHOTON LIGHT-BY-LIGHT SCATTERING

A signal of 106 14 positrons above background has been observed in collisions of a low-emittance 46.6-GeV electron beam with terawatt pulses from a Nd:glass laser at 527 nm wavelength in an experiment at the Final Focus Test Beam at SLAC. The positrons are interpreted as arising from a two-step process in which laser photons are backscattered to GeV energies by the electron beam followed by a collision between the high-energy photon and several laser photons to produce an electron-positron pair. These results are the rst laboratory evidence for inelastic light-by-light scattering involving only real photons. Submitted to Physical Review Letters Work supported by Department of Energy contract DE{AC03{76SF00515 and grants DE{FG02{ 91ER40671, DE{FG02{91ER40685 and DE{FG05{91ER40627. Present address: Hughes Leitz Optical Technologies Ltd., Midland, Ontario, Canada L4R 2H2. Present address: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551. also Department of Mechanical Engineering Present address: Panoramastrasse 8, 78589 Durbheim, Germany The production of an electron-positron pair in the collision of two real photons was rst considered by Breit and Wheeler [1] who calculated the cross section for the reaction !1 + !2 ! e e (1) to be of order r e , where re is the classical electron radius. While pair creation by real photons is believed to occur in astrophysical processes [2] it has not been observed in the laboratory up to the present. After the invention of the laser the prospect of intense laser beams led to reconsideration of the Breit-Wheeler process by Reiss [3] and others [4, 5]. Of course, for production of an electron-positron pair the center-of-mass (CM) energy of the scattering photons must be at least 2mc 1 MeV. While this precludes pair creation by a single electromagnetic wave, the necessary CM energy can be achieved by colliding a laser beam against a highenergy photon beam created, for example, by backscattering the laser beam o a high-energy electron beam. With laser light of wavelength 527 nm (energy 2.35 eV), a photon of energy 111 GeV would be required for reaction (1) to proceed. However, with an electron beam of energy 46.6 GeV as available at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) the maximum Compton-backscattered photon energy from a 527-nm laser is only 29.2 GeV. In strong electromagnetic elds the interaction need not be limited to initial states with two photons [3], but rather the number of interacting photons becomes large as the dimensionless, invariant parameter = e q hA A i=mc 2 = eErms=m!0c = eErms 0=mc approaches or exceeds unity. Here the laser beam has laboratory frequency !0, reduced wavelength 0, root-mean-square electric eld Erms, and four-vector potential A ; e and m are the charge and mass of the electron, respectively, and c is the speed of light. For photons of wavelength 527 nm a value of = 1 corresponds to laboratory eld strength of Elab = 6 10 V/cm and intensity I = 10 W/cm. Such intensities are now practical in tabletop laser systems based on chirped-pulse ampli cation [6]. Then the multiphoton Breit-Wheeler reaction

A survey of pion charge-exchange reactions with nuclei

Abstract A survey study of the elastic charge-exchange reactions is presented. The charge-exchange cross sections are evaluated in a coupled-channel framework with optical potentials obtained from the Kisslinger and Laplacian models for the pi-nucleon off-shell scattering amplitude. Considerable differences between these two modles are obtained for pion kinetic energies below the pi-nucleon (3, 3) resonance. The effect of two-nucleon correlations is included by calculating the second-order pi-nucleus optical potential. We find that this effect dominates the charge-exchange reactions at energies of about 100 MeV.

Dielectric laser accelerators

We describe recent advances in the study of particle acceleration using dielectric near-field structures driven by infrared lasers, which we refer to as Dielectric Laser Accelerators. Implications for high energy physics and other applications are discussed.

Elastic differential cross sections and analyzing powers for p+40,42,44,48Ca at 0.8 GeV☆

Abstract Differential cross sections and analyzing powers for the elastic scattering of 800 MeV polarized protons from 40,42,44,48Ca are reported. A first-order, spin-dependent KMT optical potential analysis is presented from which the rms radii of the neutron densities are deduced. A comparison of these results with other determinations and with various theoretical predictions is given.

Gamma radiation studies on optical materials

Results for the effects of /spl gamma/s on materials for a new laser-driven accelerator are presented. Various optical and laser materials are compared. While Si and fused c-SiO/sub 2/ appear ideal for subbandgap laser wavelengths, other interesting candidates include certain fluorides and compound semiconductors.

Elastic scattering of 0.8-GeV protons from C12, Ni58, and Pb208

Differential cross sections for elastic scattering of 0.8-GeV protons from /sup 12/C, /sup 58/Ni, and /sup 208/Pb have been measured. Preliminary analysis of the data in terms of the Kerman-McManus-Thaler formalism with spin-dependent nucleon-nucleon amplitudes shows sensitivity to details of proton and neutron matter distributions.

High-intensity single bunch instability behavior in the new SLC damping ring vacuum chamber

New low-impedance vacuum chambers were installed in the SLC damping rings for the 1994 run after finding a single bunch instability with the old chamber. Although the threshold is lower with the new vacuum chamber, the instability is less severe, and we are now routinely operating at intensities of 4.5/spl times/10/sup 10/ particles per bunch (ppb) compared to 3/spl times/10/sup 10/ ppb in 1993. The vacuum chamber upgrade is described, and measurements of the bunch length, energy spread, and frequency and time domain signatures of the instability are presented.

Wiggler magnets at SSRL-present experience and future plans☆

Abstract A wiggler magnet has been installed in SPEAR and has been routinely used asa radiation source for Beam Line IV at SSRL since March, 1979. The magnet is 1.22 m long. It has five full central poles and two end half-poles producing a total of three complete small amplitude (⩽1 mm) oscillations of the electron beam in traversing the magnet. The magnet has been operated with the peak field in the central full poles at 17.2 kG and produces an intense beam of synchrotron radiation extending to 12 keV and beyond even at the lowest operating energies of SPEAR (1.5 GeV). It is compatible with all phases of colliding-beam operation of SPEAR and has improved the colliding-beam luminosity. The results of measurements on the spectrum and intensity of the radiation produced by the Wiggler will be presented. The measured effects of the wiggler on the stored beam tunes, energy spread and emittance will also be presented. Plans will also be described for installing additional high field wiggler magnets in SPEAR and also weak-field, many-period undulator magnets in both SPEAR and PEP.

Elastic differential cross sections and analyzing powers for p + 54Fe, 58,64Ni at 800 MeV

Abstract Elastic scattering analyzing powers and differential cross sections for 800 MeV → p + 54Fe, 58,64Ni are reported. An approximately mode-independent technique is used to extract information concerning the neutron density distributions of these nuclei.

Analysis of elastic scattering of 0.8 GeV polarized protons from 116Sn and 124Sn

Abstract Differential cross section and analyzing power data for elastic scattering of 0.8 GeV polarized protons from 116Sn and 124Sn are analyzed in terms of a spin-dependent Kerman-McManus-Thaler formalism. Neutron matter densities and rms radii are deduced with careful attention to sources of error, and found to be in good agreement with Hartree-Fock predictions.