Gregory Iaquaniello

The Probe for LUminosity MEasurement (PLUME) detector is a dedicated luminosity monitor at the LHCb interaction point. It is a hodoscope comprising 48 Hamamatsu R760 photomultiplier tubes that detect Cherenkov light produced by particles travelling in the direction opposite to the LHCb spectrometer acceptance. PLUME provides real-time, bunch-by-bunch luminosity measurements during LHCb data taking and serves as the primary detector for controlling the luminosity levelling process at LHCb. In addition, its data are used offline, together with other dedicated counters from LHCb sub-systems, to determine the integrated luminosity delivered to the experiment. This paper reports on the detector's operational performance during the 2024–2026 data-taking period of Run 3. The integrated luminosity recorded by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at √( s ) = 13.6 TeV during this period, as measured by the PLUME online luminosity counters for detector performance monitoring, amounts to ℒ = (26.71 ± 1.07) fb ^-1 . The luminosity values used in physics analyses are determined separately through dedicated offline calibrations based on van der Meer scans and Beam Gas Imaging techniques, and will be reported in a dedicated publication, as they are beyond the scope of this paper.

The present article reports on the generation of stable 50 pC low-divergence electron beams above 150 MeV from laser-driven wakefield acceleration using a continuous-flow gas target prototype tested at the 60 TW Salle Jaune facility at LOA. The gas target design is meant to be easily transported and integrated as an element of the beamline with a differential pumping system offering some 10⁻⁴ mbar pressure in the rest of the line. A dedicated gas injection system allows for the control of the gas mixture concentration and gas pressure in two different regions of the target within the frame of controlled ionisation injection schemes. The measured electron beam parameters show the importance of gas density profiles and longitudinal gas mixture confinement.

Exploring novel target schemes for laser wakefield accelerators is essential to address the challenge of increasing repetition rates while ensuring the stability and quality of the produced electron beams. This paper introduces and discusses the prototyping of a two-chamber gas target, integrated into the beamline and operating under continuous gas flow, in the framework of ionization injection. We present the numerical fluid modeling employed to assist the density profile shaping, with a focus on gas mixing and dopant confinement. The importance of localized high-Z gas for ionization injection is demonstrated through particle-in-cell simulations using the simulated gas profiles. We describe the test bench used for prototype evaluation, specifically addressing the plasma electron density and the longitudinal distribution of species relevant to ionization injection. The lifetime of the target at 10 Hz and 60 mJ is measured for different materials, and its effect on the resulting electron beam is assessed using particle-in-cell simulations. Finally, we outline perspectives on high-power operation.

The practical implementation of a phase diversity sensor for high resolution measurement of disturbed laser beams is detailed here. Numerical simulations show that, with simple material, a 60x60 map of complex amplitude with lambda/100 accuracy can be obtained.