Status and Prospects for the AWAKE Experiment

TL;DR

The AWAKE experiment aims to demonstrate proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration of electrons using CERN's proton bunches and plasma, with recent progress on self-modulation and plans for electron acceleration.

Contribution

This paper summarizes the status, experimental progress, and future plans of the AWAKE project for proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration.

Findings

Proved proton bunch self-modulation in plasma.

Demonstrated potential for electron acceleration in wakefields.

Outlined challenges and plans for future experiments.

Abstract

The AWAKE Collaboration is pursuing a demonstration of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration of electrons. The AWAKE experiment uses a \SI{400}{GeV/c} proton bunch from the CERN SPS, with a rms bunch length of $6$-\SI{15}{cm}, to drive wakefields in a \SI{10}{m} long rubidium plasma with an electron density of $10^{14}-10^{15}$cm$^{-3}$. Since the drive bunch length is much longer than the plasma wavelength ($\lambda_{pe}<$\SI{3}{mm}) for these plasma densities, AWAKE performed experiments to prove that the long proton bunch self-modulates in the plasma (2017). The next step is to demonstrate acceleration of electrons in the wakefields driven by the self-modulated bunch (2018). We summarize the concept of the self-modulation measurements and describe the plans and challenges for the electron acceleration experiments.