2025/03/26 by L. Calvin, L Calvin, E. Gerstmayr +68 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1361-6587/ae4d05
Abstract We report on experimental evidence of the generation of directional muons from a laser-wakefield accelerator driven by a PW-class laser. The muons were generated following the interaction of a GeV-scale high-charge electron beam with a 2 cm-thick Pb target and were detected using a Timepix3 detector placed behind a suitable shielding configuration. Data analysis indicates a <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>99.1</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.5</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> % confidence of muon detection over noise, in excellent agreement with numerical modelling. Extrapolation of the experimental setup to higher electron energies and charges suggests the potential to guide and separate from noise approximately 10 4 muons s −1 onto cm 2 -scale areas for applications using a 10 Hz PW laser. These results demonstrate the possibility of generating and transporting directional muon beams using high-power lasers and establish a foundation for the systematic application of laser-driven high-energy muon beams.