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Register a new userA method to measure vacuum birefringence at FCC-ee
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It is well-known that the Heisenberg-Euler-Schwinger effective Lagrangian predicts that a vacuum with a strong static electromagnetic field turns birefringent. We propose a scheme that can be implemented at the planned FCC-ee, to measure the nonlinear effect of vacuum birefringence in electrodynamics arising from QED corrections. Our scheme employs a pulsed laser to create Compton backscattered photons off a high energy electron beam, with the FCC-ee as a particularly interesting example. These photons will pass through a strong static magnetic field, which changes the state of polarization of the radiation - an effect proportional to the photon energy. This change will be measured by the use of an aligned single-crystal, where a large difference in the pair production cross-sections can be achieved. In the proposed experimental setup the birefringence effect gives rise to a difference in the number of pairs created in the analyzing crystal, stemming from the fact that the initial laser light has a varying state of polarization, achieved with a rotating quarter wave plate. Evidence for the vacuum birefringent effect will be seen as a distinct peak in the Fourier transform spectrum of the pair-production rate signal. This tell-tale signal can be significantly above background with only few hours of measurement, in particular at high energies.
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With centre-of-mass energies covering the Z pole, the WW threshold, the HZ production, and the top-pair threshold, the FCC-ee offers unprecedented possibilities to measure the properties of the four heaviest particles of the Standard Model (the Higgs, Z, and W bosons, and the top quark), and also those of the b and c quarks and of the $tau$ lepton. At these moderate energies, the role of the calorimeters is to complement the tracking systems in an optimal (a.k.a. particle-flow) event reconstruction. In this context, precision measurements and searches for new particles can fully profit from the improved electromagnetic and hadronic object reconstruction offered by new technologies, finer transverse and longitudinal segmentation, timing capabilities, multi-signal readout, modern computing techniques and algorithms. The corresponding requirements arise in particular from the resolution on reconstructed hadronic masses, energies, and momenta, e.g., of H, W, Z, needed to reach the FCC-ee promised precision. Extreme electromagnetic energy resolutions are also instrumental for $pi^0$ identification, $tau$ exclusive decay reconstruction, and physics sensitivity to processes accessible via radiative return. We present state of the art, challenges and future developments on some of the currently most promising technologies: high-granularity silicon and scintillator readout, dual readout, noble-liquid and crystal calorimeters.
The prospects for electroweak precision measurements at the Future Circular Collider with electron-positron beams (FCC-ee) are discussed. The Z mass and width, as well as the value of the electroweak mixing angle, can be measured with very high precision at the Z pole thanks to an instantaneous luminosity five to six order of magnitudes larger than LEP. At centre-of-mass energies around 160 GeV, corresponding to the WW production threshold, the W mass can be determined very precisely with high-statistics cross section measurements at several energy points. Similarly, a very precise determination of the top mass can be provided by an energy scan at the $mathrm{t bar t}$ production threshold, around 350 GeV.
We study the perspectives of measuring the phenomenon of vacuum birefringence predicted by quantum electrodynamics using an x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) alone. We devise an experimental scheme allowing the XFEL beam to collide with itself under a finite angle, and thus act as both pump and probe field for the effect. The signature of vacuum birefringence is encoded in polarization-flipped signal photons to be detected with high-purity x-ray polarimetry. Our findings for idealized scenarios underline that the discovery potential of solely XFEL-based setups can be comparable to those involving optical high-intensity lasers. For currently achievable scenarios, we identify several key details of the x-ray optical ingredients that exert a strong influence on the magnitude of the desired signatures.
The Standard Model of particle physics is still lacking an understanding of the generation and nature of neutrino masses. A favorite theoretical scenario (the see-saw mechanism) is that both Dirac and Majorana mass terms are present, leading to the existence of heavy partners of the light neutrinos, presumably massive and nearly sterile. These heavy neutrinos can be searched for at high energy lepton colliders of very high luminosity, such as the Future electron-positron e+e- Circular Collider, FCC-ee (TLEP), presently studied within the Future Circular Collider design study at CERN, as a possible first step. A first look at sensitivities, both from neutrino counting and from direct search for heavy neutrino decay, are presented. The number of neutrinos should be measurable with a precision between 0.001 - 0.0004, while the direct search appears very promising due to the long lifetime of heavy neutrinos for small mixing angles. A sensitivity down to a heavy-light mixing of 10^{-12} is obtained, covering a large phase-space for heavy neutrino masses between 10 and 80 GeV/c2.
Equipping an experiment at FCC-ee with particle identification (PID) capabilities, in particular the ability to distinguish between hadron species, would bring great benefits to the physics programme. Good PID is essential for precise studies in quark flavour physics, and is also a great asset for many measurements in tau, top and Higgs physics. The requirements placed by flavour physics and these other applications are surveyed, with an emphasis on the momentum range over which PID is necessary. Possible solutions are discussed, including classical RICH counters, time-of-flight systems, and d$E$/d$x$ and cluster counting. Attention is paid to the impact on the global detector design that including PID capabilities would imply.
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