Testing Strong Field QED Close to the Fully Nonperturbative Regime Using Aligned Crystals.

Processes occurring in the strong field regime of QED are characterized by background electromagnetic fields of the order of the critical field F_{cr}=m^{2}c^{3}/ℏ|e| in the rest frame of participating charges. It has been conjectured that if in their rest frame electrons and positrons experience field strengths of the order of F_{cr}/α^{3/2}≈1600F_{cr}, with α≈1/137 being the fine-structure constant, their effective coupling with radiation becomes of the order of unity. Here we show that channeling radiation by ultrarelativistic electrons with energies of the order of a few TeV on thin tungsten crystals allows us to test the predictions of QED close to this fully nonperturbative regime by measuring the angularly resolved single photon intensity spectrum. The proposed setup features the unique characteristics that essentially all electrons (1) undergo at most a single photon emission and (2) experience at the moment of emission and in the angular region of interest the maximum allowed value of the field strength, which at 2 TeV exceeds F_{cr} by more than 2 orders of magnitude in their rest frame.

Observation of Quasichanneling Oscillations.

We report on the first experimental observations of quasichanneling oscillations, recently seen in simulations and described theoretically. Although above-barrier particles penetrating a single crystal are generally seen as behaving almost as in an amorphous substance, distinct oscillation peaks nevertheless appear for particles in that category. The quasichanneling oscillations were observed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory by aiming 20.35 GeV positrons and electrons at a thin silicon crystal bent to a radius of R=0.15 m, exploiting the quasimosaic effect. For electrons, two relatively faint quasichanneling peaks were observed, while for positrons, seven quasichanneling peaks were clearly identified.

Observation of deflection of a beam of multi-GeV electrons by a thin crystal.

We report on an experiment performing channeling and volume reflection of a high-energy electron beam using a quasimosaic, bent silicon (111) crystal at the End Station A Test Beam at SLAC. The experiment uses beams of 3.35 and 6.3 GeV. In the channeling orientation, deflections of the beam of 400 µrad for both energies with about 22% efficiency are observed, while in the volume-reflection orientation, deflection of the beam by 120 µrad at 3.35 GeV and by 80 µrad at 6.3 GeV is observed with 86%-95% efficiency. Quantitative measurements of the channeling efficiency, surface transmission, and dechanneling length are taken. These are the first quantitative measurements of channeling and volume reflection using a primary beam of multi-GeV electrons.

Target structure induced suppression of the ionization cross section for very low energy antiproton-hydrogen collisions.

Low energy antiprotons have been used previously to give benchmark data for theories of atomic collisions. Here we present measurements of the cross section for single, nondissociative ionization of molecular hydrogen for impact of antiprotons with kinetic energies in the range 2-11 keV, i.e., in the velocity interval of 0.3-0.65 a.u. We find a cross section which is proportional to the projectile velocity, which is quite unlike the behavior of corresponding atomic cross sections, and which has never previously been observed experimentally.

Ionization of helium and argon by very slow antiproton impact.

The total cross sections for single ionization of helium and single and double ionization of argon by antiproton impact have been measured in the kinetic energy range from 3 to 25 keV using a new technique for the creation of intense slow antiproton beams. The new data provide benchmark results for the development of advanced descriptions of atomic collisions and we show that they can be used to judge, for the first time, the validity of the many recent theories.

Direct measurement of the Chudakov effect.

Experimental results for the restricted energy loss of pairs created from 1-178 GeV photons in a thin Au target and subsequently passing a CCD detector are presented. It is shown that pairs--when detected close to the creation vertex--suffer a reduced energy loss due to the internal screening of the charges constituting the pair. Furthermore, the ability to measure directly the energy of the pair by calorimetry enables a comparison with theory as a function of energy. The observed phenomenon is in good qualitative agreement with general expectations from the Chudakov effect but indicates a quantitative disagreement with either of two mutually disagreeing theories.

Stopping power in insulators and metals without charge exchange.

The slowing-down process of pointlike charged particles in matter has been investigated by measuring the stopping power for antiprotons in materials of qualitatively very different nature. Whereas the velocity-proportional stopping power observed for metal-like targets such as aluminum over a wide energy range of 1-50 keV is in agreement with expectations, it is surprising that the same velocity dependence is seen for a large band-gap insulator such as LiF. The validity of these observations is supported by several measurements with protons and several checks of the target properties. The observations call for both a qualitative explanation and a quantitative theoretical model.

Is the electron radiation length constant at high energies?

Experimental results for the radiative energy loss of 149, 207, and 287 GeV electrons in a thin Ir target are presented. From the data we conclude that at high energies the radiation length increases in accordance with the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) theory and thus electrons become more penetrating the higher the energy. The increase of the radiation length as a result of the LPM effect has a significant impact on the behavior of high-energy electromagnetic showers.

Antiproton stopping at low energies: confirmation of velocity-proportional stopping power.

The stopping power for antiprotons in various solid targets has been measured in the low-energy range of 1-100 keV. In agreement with most models, in particular free-electron gas models, the stopping power is found to be proportional to the projectile velocity below the stopping-power maximum. Although a stopping power proportional to velocity has also been observed for protons, the interpretation of such measurements is difficult due to the presence of charge exchange processes. Hence, the present measurements constitute the first unambiguous support for a velocity-proportional stopping power due to target excitations by a pointlike projectile.