RUI: Providing Strong Field Quantum Electrodynamics Experiments to Cal Poly

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Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) is the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics that describes how matter and light interact. In the regime of weak electromagnetic fields, the predictions of QED are calculated via perturbation theory that has been tested and validated in depth with remarkable agreement by experiments such as the Lamb shift of the energy levels of hydrogen. This award will allow the measurement of QED in the presence of strong fields at or above a critical field, called the Schwinger Field, where perturbative techniques are no longer applicable. Quantum electrodynamics predicts that in the presence of very strong electric fields the vacuum becomes strongly polarized, spontaneous electron-positron pair creation occurs, and photons are subject to vacuum birefringence. Using advances in laser technology, it is now possible to measure strong field QED (SFQED) phenomena deep into the non-perturbative regime. In this award, particle physics, plasma physics, and optical physics are used in colliding a high energy electron beam (13 GeV) with an intense laser pulse (I 1020 W cm-2) at the Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests-II (FACET-II) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory as part of the Strong Field Quantum Electrodynamics (SFQED) E-320 collaboration. The aim of this research is to advance the study of light-matter interaction in the nonperturbative regime of QED, improving some parameters by orders of magnitude. This award will use the FACET-II facilities at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to enhance the experimental physics research, teaching, and outreach in particle physics at the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). The proposed work intends to: i) collaborate on SFQED physics between Cal Poly and the E-320 international collaboration at SLAC; ii) take part in the assembly and operation of the fundamental SFQED experiments at SLAC; iii) simulate SFQED nonlinear Compton scattering and vacuum pair production in the perturbative regime given the FACET-II and laser operating conditions; iv) develop a fast, high resolution charge particle detector using commercially available Silicon strip detectors that will be employed in a future upgrade of the experiment; v) write real time data analysis software for particle, laser and beam detectors that will be displayed during data taking in the SLAC main control room; vi) provide support and training of students, including students from underrepresented backgrounds, at a predominately undergraduate institution in the field of experimental particle physics at a world class research facility. This research will provide the PI and Cal Poly undergraduate students research experiences in SFQED during the summer at SLAC and during the academic year at Cal Poly. The research allows the principle investigator and Cal Poly undergraduate students the opportunity to push the intensity frontier in particle physics that can potentially provide information on the fundamental nature of matter and space.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.