Compact laser-plasma accelerator can generate muons on demand for imaging

Muon beams can now be created in a tool that’s the size of a ruler.

Researchers at Berkeley Lab introduced a foot-long (30 cm) compact laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) that may generate and detect extremely directional muon beams. It works through the use of intense laser pulses to speed up electron beams, which then create muons in considerably greater numbers and with higher directionality, offering a robust new different for non-destructive imaging of enormous or hid objects.

Conventional synthetic muon sources are cumbersome and costly, which has left many imaging functions reliant on naturally occurring, scarce, and unreliable cosmic rays. The new LPA overcomes these constraints by producing considerably greater muon yields, slashing publicity instances from months to minutes, in keeping with the research published in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams.

Unlike X-rays, that are simply absorbed, muons lose vitality step by step, permitting them to go by massive or hidden constructions made up of tons of of meters of rock or dense supplies like lead and metal. Thanks to this distinctive penetration energy, muon imaging has revealed hidden chambers within the Great Pyramid of Giza, probed the interiors of volcanoes, and inspected nuclear waste.

Cosmic rays always bathe Earth with muons. About 147 muons go by each sq. meter of the floor every second, and trillions go by every of us over a lifetime. However, imaging functions that require muons from particular instructions, which is why conventional muon imagery requires months of publicity to gather sufficient information for a transparent picture.

The want for a compact machine that may be carried on-site led researchers to LPAs. Several research had theorized that LPAs might doubtlessly generate muons as a byproduct of colliding laser plasma generated electron beams with high-Z targets; Z right here stands for atomic variety of a component. Most of those have been solely computational predictions, with no experimental backing.

At Berkeley Lab’s BELLA Facility, researchers have achieved the primary detection and characterization of directional muon beams produced by a laser–plasma accelerator (LPA). Using the laser, the researchers accelerated electrons to extraordinarily excessive (multi-GeV) energies in a 30 cm plasma channel.

These high-energy electrons then collided with a high-Z goal (lead), the place they emitted photons as they have been deflected by atomic nuclei. When these energetic photons struck the goal nuclei, they produced muon–antimuon pairs. The ensuing muons shaped a extremely directional, collimated beam alongside the unique electron path, with energies reaching a number of GeV.

Simulations and experiments reveal two distinct muon populations: high-energy, directional muons concentrated alongside the central beam axis, and lower-energy, nondirectional muons dominating the areas away from the central beam.

The LPA additionally generated muon fluxes greater than 40 instances greater than cosmic rays for horizontal imaging. Instead of counting on the sparse trickle of muons from cosmic sources, the system delivered over 20 muons per shot throughout the imaging aperture, providing distinctive decision at unprecedented pace.

The researchers notice that the experiment establishes LPA-generated electron beams as sensible muon sources, paving the way in which for future functions constructed round high-energy beams and detectors optimized for muon scattering picture reconstruction.

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