Laser induced Compton scattering to dark photon or axionlike particle

Abstract

The laser of an intense electromagnetic field provides an important tool to study the strong-field particle physics. The nonlinear Compton scattering was observed in the collision of an ultrarelativistic electron beam with a laser pulse in the 1990s. The precision measurement of the nonlinear Compton scattering shines the light on the studies of strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED) and nonlinear effects in QED. In this work, we propose to produce new massive particles through the nonlinear Compton scattering in the presence of a high intense laser field. We take dark photon or axionlike particle as illustrative new particle. Compared with other collider and beam dump experiments, the laser induced process provides a complementary and competitive search of new invisible particles lighter than 1 MeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2025