Sep 13 – 19, 2015
La Biodola, Isola d'Elba
Europe/Rome timezone

Electron acceleration behind self-modulating proton beam in plasma with a density gradient

Sep 16, 2015, 6:50 PM
20m
SML Sala Maria Luisa (Hotel Hermitage)

SML Sala Maria Luisa

Hotel Hermitage

talk WG1 - Electron beams from plasmas WG1 - Electron beams from plasmas

Speaker

Alexey Petrenko (CERN, Budker INP)

Description

Presently available high-energy proton beams in circular accelerators carry enough momentum to accelerate high-intensity electron and positron beams to the TeV energy scale over several hundred meters of plasma with a density of ~1e15 1/cm^3. However the plasma wavelength at this density is 100-1000 times shorter than the typical longitudinal size of the high-energy proton beam. Therefore the self-modulation instability (SMI) of a long (~10 cm) proton beam in plasma should be used in order to create the train of micro-bunches which would then drive the plasma wake resonantly. Changing the plasma density profile offers a simple way to control the development of SMI and the acceleration of particles during this process. We present the simulations of the possible use of plasma density gradient as a way to control the injection and acceleration of electron beam during the development of the SMI of 400 GeV proton beam in 10 m long plasma. This work is done in the context of the AWAKE project -- the proof of principle experiment on proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration at CERN.

Primary author

Alexey Petrenko (CERN, Budker INP)

Presentation materials