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Matthew Wing

Publications and source records attributed to Matthew Wing.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2025

A dump leakage calorimeter to measure the flux of high-energy electrons and photons

We developed a novel apparatus based on a lead-glass calorimeter that can measure the flux of high-energy electrons or photons. Our detector uses the electromagnetic shower leakage from the beam dump, where the particles are disposed of at the beamline's end. A prototype of such a calorimeter was set up at the FLASHForward experiment at DESY. We show that it can measure the electron bunch charge with a typical precision on the order of 10% and an accuracy at the few-percent level. Additionally, it is capable of determining the beam's position with a precision on the order of tens of micrometers. Finally, we demonstrate applicability to high-energy photons.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2025

A High-Flux Electron Detector System to Measure Non-linear Compton Scattering at LUXE

Recently, advancements in high-intensity laser technology have enabled the exploration of non-perturbative Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) in strong-field regimes. Notable aspects include non-linear Compton scattering and Breit-Wheeler pair production, observable when colliding high-intensity laser pulses and relativistic electron beams. The LUXE experiment at DESY and the E-320 experiment at SLAC aim to study these phenomena by measuring the created high-flux Compton electrons and photons. We propose a novel detector system featuring a segmented gas-filled Cherenkov detector with a scintillator screen and camera setup, designed to efficiently detect high-flux Compton electrons. Preliminary results from E-320 measurement campaigns demonstrate methods for reconstructing electron energy spectra, aiming to reveal crucial features of non-perturbative QED.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2025

HALHF: a hybrid, asymmetric, linear Higgs factory using plasma- and RF-based acceleration

HALHF is a hybrid linear collider that uses electron-driven plasma-wakefield acceleration to accelerate electrons to high energy while using radio-frequency cavity technology to accelerate positrons. The most cost-effective solution collides low-energy positrons with high-energy electrons, producing a boost to the final state in the electron direction with $\gamma= 1.67$. The current HALHF baseline design produces a luminosity comparable to that of the baseline ILC but with a greatly reduced construction and carbon footprint and hence much lower cost than the mature linear-collider designs ILC and CLIC. Costs for HALHF are evaluated, together with that for the approximate 15-year R\&D programme necessary to realise HALHF. Time scales and cost for the R\&D are estimated. Upgrade paths for HALHF technology from a 250~GeV Higgs factory, through 380 and 550~GeV, up to 10~TeV are sketched.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2023

High-rate electron detectors to study Compton scattering in non-perturbative QED

Research in non-perturbative QED in strong-field backgrounds has gained interest in recent years, due to advances in high-intensity laser technologies that make extreme fields accessible in the laboratory. One key signature of strong-field QED is non-linear Compton scattering in collisions between a relativistic electron beam and a high-intensity laser pulse. In the vicinity of strong fields, the electron gains a larger effective mass, which leads to a laser-intensity-dependent shift of the kinematic Compton edge and the appearance of higher-order harmonics in the energy spectrum. One of the challenges of measuring the Compton energy spectrum in laser-electron-beam collisions is the enormous flux of outgoing Compton-scattered electrons and photons, ranging from $10^3$ to $10^9$ particles per collision. We present a combined detector system for high-rate Compton electron detection in the context of the planned LUXE experiment, consisting of a spatially segmented gas-filled Cherenkov detector and a scintillator screen imaged by an optical camera system. The detectors are placed in a forward dipole spectrometer to resolve the electron energy spectrum. Finally, we discuss techniques to reconstruct the non-linear Compton electron energy spectrum from the high-rate electron detection system and to extract the features of non-perturbative QED from the spectrum.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2022

The AWAKE Run 2 programme and beyond

Plasma wakefield acceleration is a promising technology to reduce the size of particle accelerators. Use of high energy protons to drive wakefields in plasma has been demonstrated during Run 1 of the AWAKE programme at CERN. Protons of energy 400 GeV drove wakefields that accelerated electrons to 2 GeV in under 10 m of plasma. The AWAKE collaboration is now embarking on Run 2 with the main aims to demonstrate stable accelerating gradients of 0.5-1 GV/m, preserve emittance of the electron bunches during acceleration and develop plasma sources scalable to 100s of metres and beyond. By the end of Run 2, the AWAKE scheme should be able to provide electron beams for particle physics experiments and several possible experiments have already been evaluated. This article summarises the programme of AWAKE Run 2 and how it will be achieved as well as the possible application of the AWAKE scheme to novel particle physics experiments.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2021

Conceptual Design Report for the LUXE Experiment

This Conceptual Design Report describes LUXE (Laser Und XFEL Experiment), an experimental campaign that aims to combine the high-quality and high-energy electron beam of the European XFEL with a powerful laser to explore the uncharted terrain of quantum electrodynamics characterised by both high energy and high intensity. We will reach this hitherto inaccessible regime of quantum physics by analysing high-energy electron-photon and photon-photon interactions in the extreme environment provided by an intense laser focus. The physics background and its relevance are presented in the science case which in turn leads to, and justifies, the ensuing plan for all aspects of the experiment: Our choice of experimental parameters allows (i) effective field strengths to be probed at and beyond the Schwinger limit and (ii) a precision to be achieved that permits a detailed comparison of the measured data with calculations. In addition, the high photon flux predicted will enable a sensitive search for new physics beyond the Standard Model. The initial phase of the experiment will employ an existing 40 TW laser, whereas the second phase will utilise an upgraded laser power of 350 TW. All expectations regarding the performance of the experimental set-up as well as the expected physics results are based on detailed numerical simulations throughout.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2019

A compact electron injector for the EIC based on plasma wakefields driven by the RHIC-EIC proton beam

Initial simulations investigating using the RHIC-EIC proton beam as the drive beam in a plasma wakefield acceleration experiment are presented. The proton beam enters the plasma and undergoes self-modulation, forming a series of microbunches. These microbunches resonantly drive electron density perturbations within the plasma, exciting a longitudinal electric field with accelerating gradients in excess of $\mathrm{GVm^{-1}}$. Injecting electrons into the resulting wakefield offers an efficient method for accelerating electron bunches for use in the proposed EIC collider.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2019

Plasma Wakefield Accelerator Research 2019 - 2040: A community-driven UK roadmap compiled by the Plasma Wakefield Accelerator Steering Committee (PWASC)

The acceleration gradients generated in a laser- or beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator are typically three orders of magnitude greater than those produced by a conventional accelerator, and hence plasma accelerators can open a route to a new generation of very compact machines. In addition, plasma-based accelerators can generate beams with unique properties, such as tens of kiloamp peak currents, attosecond bunch duration, ultrahigh brightness and intrinsic particle beam-laser pulse synchronization. In this roadmap we review the status of plasma accelerator research in the UK. We outline potential applications, describe the research and development required to enable those applications, and discuss synergies with related areas of research. We also set-out the resources required to realise these ambitions and provide a timeline for advances in the key areas.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2018

AWAKE: On the path to particle physics applications

Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration allows the transfer of energy from a proton bunch to a trailing bunch of particles, the `witness' particles, via plasma electrons. The AWAKE experiment at CERN is pursuing a demonstration of this scheme using bunches of protons from the CERN SPS. Assuming continued success of the AWAKE program, high energy electron or muon beams will become available, opening up an extensive array of future particle physics projects from beam dump searches for new weakly interacting particles such as Dark Photons, to fixed target physics programs, to energy frontier electron-proton, electron-ion, electron-positron and muon colliders. The time is right for the particle physics community to offer strong support to the pursuit of this new technology as it will open up new avenues for high energy particle physics.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2017

Recent investigations of QCD at HERA

The latest results from the H1 and ZEUS collaborations which challenge the QCD description of high energy $ep$ collisions are presented. Data from HERA continue to provide precision measurements and are compared to the latest theoretical predictions. Measurements of new processes are also presented as well as investigation of regions where perturbative QCD fails to describe the data. Four themes are presented here. Measurements of hard QCD processes, prompt photon and jet production, are used to compare to the latest theoretical predictions and, in the case of jet production, used to make high-precision extractions of the strong coupling constant up to next-next-to-leading order in QCD. All H1 and ZEUS charm and beauty cross sections in deep inelastic scattering have been combined and used to extract heavy-quark masses, including the running of the charm-quark mass with the scale of the process. Factorisation in diffraction has been investigated in charm production in deep inelastic scattering and prompt photon production in diffractive photoproduction has been measured for the first time. Finally, the inclusive data on deep inelastic scattering is presented in various forms in order to allow investigation of the underlying mechanism at very low photon virtuality $Q^2$ and low Bjorken $x$.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2015

VHEeP: A very high energy electron-proton collider based on proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration

Based on current CERN infrastructure, an electron-proton collider is proposed at a centre-of-mass energy of about 9 TeV. A 7 TeV LHC bunch is used as the proton driver to create a plasma wakefield which then accelerates electrons to 3 TeV, these then colliding with the other 7 TeV LHC proton beam. The basic parameters of the collider are presented, which although of very high energy, has integrated luminosities of the order of 1 pb$^{-1}$/year. For such a collider, with a centre-of-mass energy 30 times greater than HERA, parton momentum fractions, $x$, down to about $10^{-8}$ are accessible for $Q^2$ of 1 GeV$^2$ and could lead to effects of saturation or some other breakdown of DGLAP being observed. The total photon-proton cross section can be measured up to very high energies and also at different energies as the possibility of varying the electron beam energy is assumed; this could have synergy with cosmic-ray physics. Other physics which can be pursued at such a collider are contact interaction searches, such as quark and electron substructure, and measurements of the proton structure as well as other more conventional measurements of QCD at high energies and in a new kinematic regime. The events at very low $x$ will lead to electrons and the hadronic final state produced at very low angles and so a novel spectrometer device will be needed to measure these. First ideas of the physics programme of such a collider are given.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2015

X-CSIT: a toolkit for simulating 2D pixel detectors

A new, modular toolkit for creating simulations of 2D X-ray pixel detectors, X-CSIT (X-ray Camera SImulation Toolkit), is being developed. The toolkit uses three sequential simulations of detector processes which model photon interactions, electron charge cloud spreading with a high charge density plasma model and common electronic components used in detector readout. In addition, because of the wide variety in pixel detector design, X-CSIT has been designed as a modular platform so that existing functions can be modified or additional functionality added if the specific design of a detector demands it. X-CSIT will be used to create simulations of the detectors at the European XFEL, including three bespoke 2D detectors: the Adaptive Gain Integrating Pixel Detector (AGIPD), Large Pixel Detector (LPD) and DePFET Sensor with Signal Compression (DSSC). These simulations will be used by the detector group at the European XFEL for detector characterisation and calibration. For this purpose, X-CSIT has been integrated into the European XFEL's software framework, Karabo. This will further make it available to users to aid with the planning of experiments and analysis of data. In addition, X-CSIT will be released as a standalone, open source version for other users, collaborations and groups intending to create simulations of their own detectors.

physics.ins-det↗
arXiv2014

Emittance Growth Due to Multiple Coulomb Scattering in a Linear Collider Based on Plasma Wakefield Acceleration

Alternative acceleration technologies are currently under development for cost-effective, robust, compact and efficient solutions. One such technology is plasma wakefield acceleration, driven by either a charged particle or laser beam. However, the potential issues must be studied in detail. In this paper, the emittance growth of the witness beam through elastic scattering from gaseous media is derived. The model is compared with the numerical studies.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2013

The Hadronic Final State at HERA

The hadronic final state in electron-proton collisions at HERA has provided a rich testing ground for development of the theory of the strong force, QCD. In this review, over 200 publications from the H1 and ZEUS Collaborations are summarised. Short distance physics, the measurement of processes at high energy scales, has provided rigorous tests of perturbative QCD and constrained the structure of the proton as well as allowing precise measurements of the strong coupling constant to be made. Non-perturbative or low energy processes have also been investigated and results on hadronisation interpreted together with those from other experiments. Searches for exotic QCD objects, such as pentaquarks, glueballs and instantons have been performed. The subject of diffraction has been re-invigorated through its precise measurement, such that it can now be described by perturbative QCD. After discussion of HERA, the H1 and ZEUS detectors and the techniques used to reconstruct differing hadronic final states, the above subject areas are elaborated. The major achievements are then condensed further in a final section summarising what has been learned.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2013

Measurements of deep inelastic scattering at HERA

After fifteen years of running and a further five years of analysis, the final inclusive deep inelastic scattering cross sections from H1 and ZEUS have been published. Measurements of neutral current and charged current processes in ep collisions at HERA are presented. These provide us with the most valuable information on the structure of the proton, which tells us about the fundamental structure of matter and is essential for understanding processes at proton colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements also demonstrate the chiral structure of the weak force and give a beautiful demonstration of the unification of the electromagnetic and weak forces. The new data will be presented in detail and comparisons with the latest predictions of the Standard Model shown. The H1 and ZEUS collaborations have also performed fits of the parton distribution functions in the proton; the results of these fits will also be presented.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2010

A QCD analysis of ZEUS diffractive data

ZEUS inclusive diffractive cross-section measurements have been used in a next-to-leading-order QCD analysis to extract the diffractive parton distribution functions. Data on diffractive dijet production in deep inelastic scattering have also been used to constrain the gluon density. Predictions based on the extracted parton densities are able to describe measurements of dijet photoproduction.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2005

Heavy quark production at HERA and the LHC

Measurements of heavy quark production, particularly from HERA, their theoretical understanding and their relevance for the LHC are reviewed. The status of beauty and charm production is discussed in the context of the different components of the production process: the parton density function of the colliding hadrons; the hard scatter; and the fragmentation of the quarks into hadrons. The theory of QCD at next-to-leading order generally describes well the hadronic structure and the production of heavy quarks although sometimes fails in details which are highlighted. The fragmentation of heavy quarks measured at HERA is consistent with that at LEP and hence supports the notion of universality.

hep-ex↗