Strong enhancement of electromagnetic shower development induced by high-energy photons in a thick oriented tungsten crystal

M. Soldani; L. Bandiera; M. Moulson; G. Ballerini; V. G. Baryshevsky; L. Bomben; C. Brizzolari; N. Charitonidis; G. L. D’Alessandro; D. De Salvador; M. van Dijk; G. Georgiev; A. Gianoli; V. Guidi; V. Haurylavets; A. S. Lobko; T. Maiolino; V. Mascagna; A. Mazzolari; F. C. Petrucci; M. Prest; M. Romagnoni; P. Rubin; D. Soldi; A. Sytov; V. V. Tikhomirov; E. Vallazza

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11247-x

2023 Impact factor 4.2

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2023) 83: 101
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-023-11247-x

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Strong enhancement of electromagnetic shower development induced by high-energy photons in a thick oriented tungsten crystal

M. Soldani¹^,2, L. Bandiera¹^b, M. Moulson³^c, G. Ballerini⁴^,5, V. G. Baryshevsky⁶, L. Bomben⁴^,5, C. Brizzolari⁴^,5, N. Charitonidis⁷, G. L. D’Alessandro⁷, D. De Salvador⁸^,9, M. van Dijk⁷, G. Georgiev³^,10, A. Gianoli¹, V. Guidi¹^,2, V. Haurylavets⁶, A. S. Lobko⁶, T. Maiolino¹^,11^,12, V. Mascagna⁴^,5, A. Mazzolari¹, F. C. Petrucci¹^,2, M. Prest⁴^,5, M. Romagnoni¹^,13, P. Rubin¹⁴, D. Soldi¹⁵^,16, A. Sytov¹, V. V. Tikhomirov⁶ and E. Vallazza¹⁷

¹ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
² Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
³ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, Italy
⁴ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy
⁵ Dipartimento di Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Como, Italy
⁶ Institute for Nuclear Problems, Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus
⁷ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁸ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, Italy
⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy
¹⁰ Faculty of Physics, University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria
¹¹ School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
¹² WHU-NAOC Joint Center for Astronomy, Wuhan University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China
¹³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Milano Statale, Milan, Italy
¹⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
¹⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, Turin, Italy
¹⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin, Italy
¹⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, Trieste, Italy

^b bandiera@fe.infn.it
^c matthew.moulson@lnf.infn.it

Received: 12 November 2022
Accepted: 22 January 2023
Published online: 31 January 2023

Abstract

We have observed a significant enhancement in the energy deposition by 25– $100 GeV$ $100~\textrm{GeV}$ photons in a $1 cm$ $1~\textrm{cm}$ thick tungsten crystal oriented along its $⟨ 111 ⟩$ $\langle 111 \rangle$ lattice axes. At $100 GeV$ $100~\textrm{GeV}$ , this enhancement, with respect to the value observed without axial alignment, is more than twofold. This effect, together with the measured huge increase in secondary particle generation is ascribed to the acceleration of the electromagnetic shower development by the strong axial electric field. The experimental results have been critically compared with a newly developed Monte Carlo adapted for use with crystals of multi- $X_{0}$ $$X_0$$ thickness. The results presented in this paper may prove to be of significant interest for the development of high-performance photon absorbers and highly compact electromagnetic calorimeters and beam dumps for use at the energy and intensity frontiers.

© The Author(s) 2023

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