High brilliance photon pulses interacting with relativistic electron and proton beams

We present a detailed study of the interaction between relativistic electron beams and high intensity laser pulses aimed at the production, through Inverse Compton scattering, of high brilliance gamma rays. In particular, we focus on the simulations of the emitted photon beams for the Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics Gamma Beam System. The machine, presently under construction, is designed to deliver gamma ray photon beams in the 0.2-19.5 MeV energy range characterized by unprecedented performances in terms of monochromaticity, brilliance, spectral density, tunability and polarization. The possibility to generate low emittance TeV-class energy pion and muon beams via photo-production in a highly relativistic Lorentz boosted frame is discussed in the second part of the dissertation. The kinematics of all the events given by the proton-photon beams interaction has been considered: pion photo-production and further decay into muon and neutrino, lepton pair photo-production (electron/positron and muon pairs) and Inverse Compton scattering. We analyze the brightness of the secondary beams achievable by the coupling of advanced high efficiency high repetition rate Free Electron Laser pulses and Large Hadron Collider or Future Circular Collider proton beams.