Session R5: Advanced Acceleration Techniques
10:45 AM–12:33 PM, Monday, April 14, 2008
Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront (formerly Adam's Mark Hotel), Room: Promenade C
Sponsoring Units:
DPB DPP
Chair: Warren Mori, University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract ID: BAPS.2008.APR.R5.1
Abstract: R5.00001 : Plasma Acceleration
10:45 AM–11:21 AM
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Author:
Chan Joshi
(UCLA)
The energy frontier of particle physics is several trillion electron volts, but colliders capable of reaching this regime are costly and time-consuming to build; it is therefore important to explore new methods of accelerating particles to high energies. Plasma-based accelerators are particularly attractive because they are capable of producing accelerating fields that are orders of magnitude larger than those used in conventional colliders. In these accelerators, a drive beam (either laser or particle) produces a plasma wave (wakefield) that accelerates charged particles. The ultimate utility of plasma accelerators will depend on sustaining ultrahigh accelerating fields over a substantial length to achieve a significant energy gain. In this talk I will show recent results on the energy doubling of 42 GeV electrons at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in less than one meter using a plasma accelerator. Most of the beam electrons lose energy in exciting the plasma wave, but some electrons in the back of the same beam pulse are accelerated with a field of $\sim $52 GV m$^{-1}$. This effectively doubles their energy, producing the energy gain of the 3-km-long SLAC accelerator in less than a metre for a small fraction of the electrons in the injected bunch. I will discuss how this new technique may affect future colliders for high energy physics.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2008.APR.R5.1