The workshop will focus on the LUXE experiment design, physics as well as on related topics in Strong-Field Quantum Electrodynamics (SF-QED) and Beyond the SM (BSM) opportunities. The workshop will bring together physicists from several disciplines, namely laser physicist, particle experimentalists, SF-QED theorists and BSM phenomenologists. This will serve as a ground for discussions related to the experimental design from the underlying theory governing the interactions (both within the standard model and beyond it), through the laser instrumentation and diagnostics, and on to the detectors and reconstruction.
The LUXE experiment (Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 230, 2445–2560 (2021)) at the Eu.XFEL is designed to test the validity of QED in the extreme field regime with an unprecedented precision. LUXE will collide high-intensity laser pulses with a high-energy and high-charge electron beam from the Eu.XFEL. Two processes arise in such collisions: nonlinear Compton scattering (NCS) and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production (NBW). The rate of these processes is characterized by the Schwinger critical field of ~1.3e18 V/m. The SLAC E144 experiment operated in the 1990s was able to measure these processes in laser RMS fields of up to about a quarter of the Schwinger field strength in the electron’s rest frame. The LUXE experiment aims to reach and go beyond that point. Besides the SF-QED precision measurements, the experiment offers opportunities to search for BSM physics and several such directions have been proposed, e.g. in Phys. Rev. D 106, 115034 (2022). With the recent critical-decision-1 (CD1) approval by the DESY directorate, the experiment expects to install and start taking data in 2026.
The workshop will have two parts: LUXE-only closed session (Sep 4-7) followed by an open session (Sep 7-12), which will also include an overnight excursion to the desert.
Accommodation and catering (except for the days with free evenings) are fully covered for all participants in both sessions. Flights support is provided to invited speakers only (in the open session).
