Conceptual Design Report for the LUXE Experiment
Creators: name: Abramowicz, Halina
name: Acosta, Uwe Hernandez
name: Altarelli, Massimo
name: Assmann, Ralph
name: Bai, Zhaoyu
name: Behnke, Ties
name: Benhammou, Yan
name: Blackburn, Thomas
name: Boogert, Stewart
name: Borysov, Oleksandr
name: Borysova, Maryna
name: Brinkmann, Reinhard
name: Bruschi, Marco
name: Burkart, Florian
name: Büßer, Karsten
name: Cavanagh, Niall
name: Davidi, Oz
name: Decking, Winfried
name: Dosselli, Umberto
name: Elkina, Nina
name: Fedotov, Alexander
name: Firlej, Miroslaw
name: Fiutowski, Tomasz
name: Fleck, Kyle
name: Gostkin, Mikhail
name: Grojean, Christophe
name: Hallford, John Andrew
name: Harsh, Harsh
name: Hartin, Anthony
name: Heinemann, Beate
name: Heinzl, Tom
name: Helary, Louis
name: Hoffmann, Marius
name: Huang, Shan
name: Huang, Xinhe
name: Idzik, Marek
name: Ilderton, Anton
name: Jacobs, Ruth Magdalena
name: Kaempfer, Burkhard
name: King, Ben
name: Lakhno, Hlib
name: Levanon, Assaf
name: Levy, Aharon
name: Levy, Itamar
name: List, Jenny
name: Lohmann, Wolfgang
name: Ma, Teng
name: Macleod, Alexander John
name: Malka, Victor
name: Meloni, Federico
name: Mironov, Arseny
name: Morandin, Mauro
name: Moron, Jakub
name: Negodin, Evgueni
name: Perez, Gilad
name: Pomerantz, Ishay
name: Poeschl, Roman
name: Prasad, Rajendra
name: Quere, Fabien
name: Ringwald, Andreas
name: Roedel, Christian
name: Rykovanov, Sergey
name: Salgado, Felipe
name: Santra, Arka
name: Sarri, Gianluca
name: Saevert, Alexander
name: Sbrizzi, Antonio
name: Schmitt, Stefan
name: Schramm, Ulrich
name: Schuwalow, Sergej
name: Seipt, Daniel
name: Shaimerdenova, Leila
name: Shchedrolosiev, Mykyta
name: Skakunov, Maksim
name: Soreq, Yotam
name: Streeter, Matthew
name: Swientek, Krzysztof
name: Hod, Noam Tal
name: Tang, Suo
name: Teter, Thomas
name: Thoden, Daniel
name: Titov, Alexander
name: Tolbanov, Oleg
name: Torgrimsson, Greger
name: Tyazhev, Anton
name: Wing, Matthew
name: Zanetti, Marco
name: Zarubin, Andrei
name: Zeil, Karl
name: Zepf, Matt
name: Zhemchukov, Aleksey
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: 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.