Collaborative Research: Graduate Student Training Through Research on Plasma-Based Accelerators

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这是一个由六所美国一流大学和一个国家实验室组成的联合体的合作项目，目的是在预期的人力需求领域培养研究生：先进加速技术。特别是，学生将在实验，理论和计算机模拟等离子体粒子加速器训练。该领域最近的研究结果表明，基于等离子体的粒子加速器一方面有潜力大幅减小基础科学所需的未来对撞机的尺寸和成本，另一方面也有可能导致用于无数工业、医疗和研究应用的台式电子加速器。该项目旨在为来自领先研究机构的博士生提供协调的学习和研究经验，这些研究机构已经开发了不同的实验和理论/模拟工具。他们的论文主题涵盖了基于等离子体的加速器领域尚未发现的基础科学、新诊断技术的发展、基础理论的推进以及对基础现象学和正在进行的实验进行建模的计算技术的使用。实验研究的基础科学课题包括电离诱导诱捕，He2+离子束的产生，空间调制等离子体波导中电子的加速和辐射的产生，使用热波或双色方案控制等离子体尾流场，以及高重复率尾流场加速器的开发。虽然大多数实验将使用高功率激光器进行，但布鲁克海文的75 MeV电子束设备（ATF）将用于研究光束驱动尾流场中高梯度、高效率的电子加速。将大力发展诊断技术。例如，将探索法拉第旋转技术作为识别尾迹中粒子自捕获的手段，而将开发层析成像技术以实现不断发展的尾迹的可视化。理论/计算工作将集中在许多方面，包括尾场的发射度保持，激光脉冲在泵耗尽距离上的自传播，正电子加速的新策略，以及等离子体加速器中电子捕获和注入的物理学。基于等离子体的加速器实验室可以说是校园里最复杂、最跨学科的仪器。此外，基于等离子体的加速领域也是非常跨学科的。该领域的计算机模拟处于计算科学和高性能计算的前沿。此外，该领域还处于将实验数据与模拟数据紧密耦合的前沿。使用复杂的实验和计算仪器进行跨学科研究的挑战吸引了富有创造力的物理和工程学生，并为他们提供了良好的训练环境。基于等离子体的加速具有广泛影响的潜力。有一天，它可能会被用于建造未来能量前沿的线性对撞机，以及用于医学和新型光子源的紧凑型加速器的基础。该项目的目的是通过形成一个多大学联盟，为研究生提供一种社区意识，该联盟可以使用最先进的设施和多学科的知识环境。这将通过知识和实验资源的共享来实现。学生们将与该领域的许多主要研究人员直接接触。该项目将培养一支训练有素的员工队伍，他们能够适应复杂的系统、跨学科的研究和合作、向同事报告发现，并为未来的挑战做好准备，比如未来在能源前沿的基于等离子体的高能粒子对撞机。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This is a collaborative project involving a consortium of six premier U.S universities and one national laboratory to train graduate students in an area of anticipated manpower need: advanced acceleration techniques. In particular, students will be trained in experiment, theory and computer simulations on plasma-based particle accelerators. Recent results in this field have shown that plasma-based particle accelerators have the potential to drastically reduce the size and hopefully the cost of future colliders needed for basic science on the one hand and to lead to table-top electron accelerators for myriad industrial, medical and research applications on the other. This project seeks to provide a coordinated learning and research experience for Ph.D. students from leading research institutions that have developed different sets of experimental and theoretical/simulations tools. The topics proposed for their theses span fundamental science yet to be uncovered in the plasma-based accelerators field, the development of new diagnostic techniques, advancing the underlying theory, and advancing the use of computational techniques to model both fundamental phenomenology and ongoing experiments. Examples of basic science topics that will be experimentally investigated include ionization induced trapping, generation of He2+ ion beams, acceleration of electrons and generation of radiation in spatially modulated plasma waveguides, control of plasma wakefields using a beat-wave or two-color scheme and the development of a high repetition rate wakefield accelerator. While most of the experiments will be done using high power lasers, the 75 MeV electron beam facility (ATF) at Brookhaven will be used to investigate high-gradient, high-efficiency acceleration of electrons in a beam driven wakefield. Much effort will be devoted to the development of diagnostic techniques. For instance a Faraday rotation technique will be explored as a means to identify the self-trapping of particles in the wake whereas a tomographic imaging technique will be developed to enable visualization of the evolving wakes. Theoretical/computational effort will focus on many fronts including emittance preservation in wakefields, self-propagation of laser pulses over pump depletion distances, novel strategies for acceleration of positrons, and physics of electron trapping and injection in plasma accelerators. Plasma-based accelerator laboratories arguably contain the most complex and cross-disciplinary instrumentation as any on a campus. In addition, the field of plasma-based acceleration is also very cross disciplinary. Computer simulations in this area are at the forefront of computational science and high performance computing. Furthermore, the field is also at the forefront of closely coupling experimental data to simulation data. The challenges of using complex experimental and computational instruments to carry out cross disciplinary research attracts creative physics and engineering students as well as provides them with an excellent training environment. Plasma-based acceleration has the potential for broad impact. It may some day be the technology used to build a future linear collider at the energy frontier as well as be the basis for compact accelerators that would have use in medicine and novel photon sources. The intent of this project is to provide the graduate students with a sense of community through the formation of a multi-university consortium that has access to state-of-the-art facilities and a multi-disciplinary intellectual environment. This will be accomplished through sharing of intellectual as well as of experimental resources. The students will be in direct contact with a large number of leading researchers in the field. The project will produce a trained workforce that is comfortable with complex systems, interdisciplinary research and collaboration, reporting of findings to colleagues, and ready for future challenges, such as a future plasma-based high-energy particle collider at the energy frontier.