Measurement of directional muon beams generated at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator

Abstract

We present the detection of directional muon beams produced using a PW laser facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The muon source is a multi-GeV electron beam generated in a 30cm laser-plasma accelerator interacting with a high-Z converter target. The GeV photons resulting from the interaction are converted into a high-flux, directional muon beam via pair production. By employing scintillators to capture delayed events, we were able to identify the produced muons and characterize the source. Using theoretical knowledge of the muon production process combined with simulations that are in excellent agreement with the experiments, we demonstrate that laser-plasma accelerators have the capability of generating electron beams with characteristics suitable to produce GeV-scale muons that offer unique advantages with respect to the cosmic background. Laser-plasma-accelerator-based muon sources can therefore enhance muon imaging applications thanks to their compactness, directionality, and high yields, which reduce the exposure time by orders of magnitude compared to cosmic ray muons. Using the geant4-based simulation code we developed to gain insight into the experimental results, we can design future experiments and applications based on LPA-generated muons.