The CERN Gamma Factory Initiative: An Ultra-High Intensity Gamma Source

This contribution discusses the possibility of broadening the present CERN research programme making use of a novel concept of light source. The proposed, Partially Stripped Ion beam driven, light source is the backbone of the Gamma Factory (GF) initiative. It could be realized at CERN by using the infrastructure of the already existing accelerators. It could push the intensity limits of the presently operating light-sources by up to 7 orders of magnitude, reaching fluxes of 10¹⁷ photons/s in the interesting gamma-ray energy domain between 1 MeV and 400 MeV. The GF light-source cannot be replaced, in this energy domain, by a FEL source as long as the multi TeV electron beams are not available. Its intensity is beyond the reach of the Inverse Compton Scattering sources. The unprecedented-intensity, energy-tuned gamma beams, together with the gamma-beams-driven secondary beams of polarized leptons, neutrinos, neutrons and radioactive ions are the basic research tools of the proposed Gamma Factory. A broad spectrum of new opportunities, in a vast domain of uncharted fundamental and applied physics territories, could be opened by the Gamma Factory research programme.