Method and apparatus for processing a particle shower using a laser-driven plasma

1. A method for processing a particle shower using a laser-driven plasma, the method comprising:

interacting a particle shower with a processing laser-driven plasma stage, the particle shower comprising at least two particle species,

wherein the laser is a high-energy, ultra-short pulse laser.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

at least one of accelerating, decelerating, trapping, or collimating the at least one particle species in the processing laser-drive plasma stage.

3. A method for processing a particle shower using a laser-driven plasma in a processing laser-driven plasma stage, the method comprising:

driving a processing laser into a processing laser-driven target to form a tunable processing laser-driven plasma in the processing laser-driven target; and

interacting a particle shower with the processing laser-driven plasma, the particle shower comprising at least two particle species,

wherein the processing laser is a high-energy, ultra-short pulse laser.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the processing laser-driven plasma stage comprises a laser-driven target, the target comprising at least one of a gas, a liquid, or a metal.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

obtaining two beams of two oppositely charged particle species; and

influencing the at least two beams to diverge from each other by influencing the at least two beams with a second magnetic field.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

directing each of the two diverged beams to orient in a head on orientation with the other;

colliding the two beams; and

generating muons as an outcome of the collision.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein one of the two beams comprises a positron beam, the method further comprising:

directing the positron beam to a crystalline material; and generating ultra-short radiation from the interaction.

8. The method of claim 3 , further comprising generating the particle shower in a feeder stage, the feeder stage comprising:

driving a feeder gas target using a feeder laser;

generating an electron flux or a proton flux from the feeder laser-driven gas target; and

interacting the electron flux or the proton flux with a metal target to generate the particle shower.

9. The method of claim 3 , wherein the particle shower is generated in a feeder stage, the feeder stage comprising:

driving a feeder metal target using a feeder laser, wherein a pre-pulse of the feeder laser generates a pre-plasma ahead of the arrival of a main pulse of the feeder laser; and

generating the particle shower from the metal target.

10. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

obtaining at least one beam of the at least one particle species, wherein the at least one particle species comprises of positrons or muons.

11. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

tuning the tunable processing laser-driven plasma; and

at least one of accelerating, decelerating, trapping, or collimating the at least one particle species in the processing laser-drive plasma.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the accelerating comprises:

accelerating the at least one particle species to a peak energy spectrum at least twice the peak energy spectrum of the particle shower.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the collimating comprises:

collimating the at least one particle species to a divergence at least half of the divergence of the particle shower.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the particle shower is either an electromagnetic particle shower comprising at least electrons and positrons, or a hadronic particle shower comprising at least pions and muons.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

providing a first magnetic field to reduce the divergence of the particle shower prior to the interacting.