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)提供资金的。这是一个由六所美国顶尖大学和一个国家实验室组成的联盟合作的项目，旨在培训预计需要人力的领域的研究生：高级加速技术。特别是，学生将接受关于等离子体粒子加速器的实验、理论和计算机模拟方面的培训。这一领域的最新结果表明，基于等离子体的粒子加速器一方面有可能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体验，这些机构开发了不同的实验和理论/模拟工具。为他们的论文提出的主题涵盖了在基于等离子体的加速器领域尚未发现的基础科学、新诊断技术的开发、推进基本理论，以及促进使用计算技术来模拟基础现象学和正在进行的实验。将进行实验研究的基础科学课题包括电离诱导陷阱、He2离子束的产生、电子的加速和空间调制等离子体波导中辐射的产生、使用拍波或双色方案控制等离子体尾流场以及开发高重复频率尾场加速器。虽然大多数实验将使用高功率激光进行，但布鲁克海文的75 MeV电子束设施(ATF)将用于研究电子在光束驱动的尾场中的高梯度、高效率加速。将致力于诊断技术的发展。例如，法拉第旋转技术将被探索作为一种手段来识别尾流中粒子的自陷，而断层成像技术将被开发来使演变的尾流可视化。理论和计算方面的工作将集中在许多方面，包括尾波场中发射度的保持，激光脉冲在泵浦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。基于等离子体的加速器实验室可以说拥有校园中最复杂和最跨学科的仪器。此外，基于等离子体的加速领域也是非常跨学科的。这一领域的计算机模拟是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结合的前沿。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具有创造力的物理和工程专业学生，并为他们提供了良好的培训环境。基于等离子体的加速具有广泛影响的潜力。有朝一日，这项技术可能会被用来在能源前沿建造未来的线性对撞机，并成为紧凑型加速器的基础，这些加速器将用于医学和新型光子源。这个项目的目的是通过建立一个能够使用最先进的设施和多学科知识环境的多大学联盟，为研究生提供一种社区感。这将通过共享智力和实验资源来实现。学生们将直接接触该领域的一大批顶尖研究人员。该项目将培养一支训练有素的劳动力队伍，他们熟悉复杂的系统、跨学科的研究和合作、向同事报告研究结果，并为未来的挑战做好准备，例如未来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.