Bright muon source driven by GeV electron beams from a compact laser wakefield accelerator

Abstract

We report here a systematic quantitative study on the generation and characteristics of an active muon source driven by the interaction of an electron beam within the energy range of 1-10 GeV from laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) with a tungsten target, using Monte Carlo simulations. The 10 GeV electron beam, achievable in the near future, from LWFA using femtosecond multi-PW lasers is employed to drive the bright source of muon pairs in a compact setup. We show that a highly directional and intense source of short-pulsed GeV muon pairs (mu(-)mu(+)) have a peak brightness of 5 x 10(17) pairs s(-1) cm(-2) sr(-1) and sub-100 ps duration could be produced using a quasi-monoenergetic 10 fs, 10 GeV electron bunch with a 1-mrad divergence and 100 pC charge. The muon pairs are emitted from a point-like source with a well-defined position and timing; the source has a size and geometric emittance of about 1 mm and 40 mu m, respectively. Such muon sources can greatly benefit applications in muon radiography as well as studies on anomalous dipole moments, rare decays of muons, neutrino oscillations, and an injector for a future compact muon collider.