Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration: a path to the future of high-energy particle physics

New acceleration technology is mandatory for the future elucidation of fundamental particles and their interactions. A promising approach is to exploit the properties of plasmas. Past research has focused on creating large-amplitude plasma waves by injecting an intense laser pulse or an electron bun...

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Published in:arXiv.org 2014-04
Main Authors: Collaboration, AWAKE, Assmann, R, Bingham, R, Bohl, T, Bracco, C, Buttenschon, B, Butterworth, A, Caldwell, A, Chattopadhyay, S, Cipiccia, S, Feldbaumer, E, Fonseca, R A, Goddard, B, Gross, M, Grulke, O, Gschwendtner, E, Holloway, J, Huang, C, Jaroszynski, D, Jolly, S, Kempkes, P, Lopes, N, Lotov, K, Machacek, J, Mandry, S R, McKenzie, J W, Meddahi, M, Militsyn, B L, Moschuering, N, Muggli, P, Najmudin, Z, Noakes, T C Q, Norreys, P A, E Oz, Pardons, A, Petrenko, A, Pukhov, A, Rieger, K, Reimann, O, Ruhl, H, Shaposhnikova, E, Silva, L O, Sosedkin, A, Tarkeshian, R, R M G N Trines, Tuckmantel, T, Vieira, J, Vincke, H, Wing, M, Xia, G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Electrons
Elementary particles
Particle physics
Plasma
Plasma waves
Plasmas
Protons
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Summary:New acceleration technology is mandatory for the future elucidation of fundamental particles and their interactions. A promising approach is to exploit the properties of plasmas. Past research has focused on creating large-amplitude plasma waves by injecting an intense laser pulse or an electron bunch into the plasma. However, the maximum energy gain of electrons accelerated in a single plasma stage is limited by the energy of the driver. Proton bunches are the most promising drivers of wakefields to accelerate electrons to the TeV energy scale in a single stage. An experimental program at CERN -- the AWAKE experiment -- has been launched to study in detail the important physical processes and to demonstrate the power of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. Here we review the physical principles and some experimental considerations for a future proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerator.
ISSN:2331-8422