Transverse self-modulation of ultra-relativistic lepton beams in the plasma wakefield accelerator

Abstract

The transverse self-modulation of ultra-relativistic, long lepton bunches in high-density plasmas is explored through full-scale particle-in-cell simulations. We demonstrate that long SLAC-type electron and positron bunches can become strongly self-modulated over centimeter distances, leading to wake excitation in the blowout regime with accelerating fields in excess of 20 GV/m. We show that particles energy variations exceeding 10 GeV can occur in meter-long plasmas. We find that the self-modulation of positively and negatively charged bunches differ when the blowout is reached. Seeding the self-modulation instability suppresses the competing hosing instability. This work reveals that a proof-of-principle experiment to test the physics of bunch self-modulation can be performed with available lepton bunches and with existing experimental apparatus and diagnostics.

8 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of Plasmas

References in corpus (6)

• Generating multi-GeV electron bunches using single stage laser wakefield acceleration in a 3D nonlinear regime
• Self-modulation instability of a long proton bunch in plasmas
• Growth and phase velocity of self-modulated beam-driven plasma waves
• Phase velocity and particle injection in a self-modulated proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerator
• Plasma Wakefield Acceleration with a Modulated Proton Bunch
• The ion motion in self-modulated plasma wakefield accelerators

Cited by in corpus (17)

• Experimental observation of proton bunch modulation in a plasma, at varying plasma densities
• Path to AWAKE: Evolution of the concept
• The ion motion in self-modulated plasma wakefield accelerators
• Physics of beam self-modulation in plasma wakefield accelerators
• Hosing Instability Suppression in Self-Modulated Plasma Wakefields
• Natural noise and external wake field seeding in a proton-driven plasma accelerator
• Electron trapping and acceleration by the plasma wakefield of a self-modulating proton beam
• Ion motion in the wake driven by long particle bunches in plasmas
• Magnetically assisted self-injection and radiation generation for plasma based acceleration
• Parameter sensitivity of plasma wakefields driven by self-modulating proton beams
• Effect of beam emittance on self-modulation of long beams in plasma wakefield accelerators
• Indirect Self-Modulation Instability Measurement Concept for the AWAKE Proton Beam
• Self-modulation instability of ultra-relativistic particle bunches with finite rise times
• First fully kinetic three-dimensional simulation of the AWAKE baseline scenario
• Multi-proton bunch driven hollow plasma wakefield acceleration in the nonlinear regime
• PIC simulation study of the interaction between a relativistically moving leptonic micro-cloud and ambient electrons
• Stopping Power Enhancement From Discrete Particle-Wake Correlations in High Energy Density Plasmas