Ultimate plasma wakefield acceleration with 400 GeV proton driver

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new nonlinear plasma wakefield acceleration regime driven by 400 GeV protons, enabling electrons and positrons to reach about 200 GeV by optimizing plasma density profiles.

Contribution

It reveals a novel nonlinear regime where plasma wave phase velocity can be matched to light speed, enhancing particle acceleration capabilities.

Findings

Plasma nonlinearity increases wave phase velocity.

Wave speed can be tuned close to the speed of light.

Electrons/positrons accelerated to ~200 GeV with 400 GeV proton driver.

Abstract

A new regime of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration is discovered, in which the plasma nonlinearity increases the phase velocity of the excited wave compared to that of the protons. If the beam charge is much larger than minimally necessary to excite a nonlinear wave, there is sufficient freedom in choosing the longitudinal plasma density profile to make the wave speed close to the speed of light. This allows electrons or positrons to be accelerated to about 200 GeV with a 400 GeV proton driver.