The 4th International Conference on Matter and Radiation at Extremes (ICMRE 2019)

593 / 2019-04-20 15:21:14

PW laser based photon-photon collider

a novel scheme to observe the creation of matter from two photons

Plenary track > Fundamental Physics at Extremes

Matter creation via two-photon BW process, which is one of the most fundamental process predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED) theory, has never been observed in the laboratory. Interests have been aroused to demonstrate the two-photon BW process with laser, owning to the developments of laser techniques and laser accelerators. Proposals would work with the laser facilities such as NIF and ELI, provided that the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio is high enough for detection. Here we show a novel approach is proposed to demonstrate the two-photon BW process by using highly collimated and wide bandwidth γ-ray pulses driven by 10-PW lasers. Theoretical calculations show that more than 3.2×10^8 positrons with a divergence angle of about 7 degrees can be created in a single shot, and the S/N is higher than 10^3. This approach, could provide the observation of two-photon interaction in the laboratory and important tests for fundamental QED theories, would pave the developments of QED, high-energy physics and laboratory astrophysics.