AWAKE: a proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment at CERN

AWAKE：欧洲核子研究中心的质子驱动等离子体尾场加速实验

• 批准号: ST/N00163X/1
• 负责人: Guoxing Xia
• 金额: $ 10.47万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FN00163X%2F1
• 关键词: AWAKE; proton; driven; plasma; wakefield

Over the last fifty years, accelerators of ever increasing energy and size have allowed us to probe the fundamentalstructure of the physical world. This has culminated in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva, a 27-km longaccelerator which has discovered the Higgs Boson and is about to embark on searches for new phenomena such asSupersymmetry. Using current accelerator technology, future high energy colliders will be of similar length or even longer.As an alternative, we are pursuing a new technology which would allow a reduction by about a factor of ten in length andhence would be expected to reduce the cost by a significant fraction.The idea presented here is to impact a high-energy proton beam, such as those at CERN, into a plasma. The free,negatively-charged electrons in the plasma are knocked out of their position by the protons, but are then attracted back bythe positively-charged ions, creating a high-gradient electric "wakefield" and an oscillating motion is started by the plasmaelectrons. Experiments have already been carried out impacting lasers or an electron beam onto a plasma and acceleratinggradients have been observed which are 1000 times higher than conventional accelerators. Given the much higher initial energy of available proton beams, it is anticipated that the electric fields it creates in a plasma could accelerate electrons inthe wakefield up to the teraelectron-volts scale required for a future collider, but in a single stage and with a length of a fewkm. Such a collider is, however, many years in the future and test experiments are first needed.The AWAKE collaboration will perform a first proof-of-principle experiment at CERN. The experiment will use a high-energyproton beam to impact on a plasma cell of about 10 m and measure the energy change in a bunch of electrons which willtravel behind the proton beam. Observing significant energy changes in the electrons would demonstrate the concept ofthis form of acceleration which has so far only been studied in simulation.The UK has several groups (Central Laser Facilities, Cockcroft Institute, Imperial College, John Adams Institute,Strathclyde and UCL) in the collaboration preparing the AWAKE experiment in CERN. We propose a programme todevelop a wide-range of instrumentation which will the allow us to successfully build the experiment and extract the physicsnecessary to demonstrate the power of this approach. A crucial part is being able to build a plasma cell with a uniformdensity over lengths much longer than previously tried. We will also deliver elements of the electron source to be fired intothe plasma at exactly the right time so as to feel the largest possible accelerating gradient in the wakefield created by theproton beam. To determine the success of the experiment, we will measure the properties of the plasma and the energyand spatial profile of the electron beam after it has been accelerated in the plasma. Finally, our results will improvesimulations of plasma wakefields to give us more confidence in our expectations of a larger-scale experiment and help usbest optimise its layout and capabilities.If successful, this experiment will lead to a further larger-scale project to accelerate bunches of electrons of small spatialextent with high particle numbers and ultimately a new form of acceleration which could lead to future, energy-frontierparticle physics experiments. This technique has the potential to radically alter the frontier of high energy physics withaccelerators as performant as currently planned or required, but at a tenth of the length and hence cost. With thesignificantly larger acceleration gradients and smaller spatial extent, plasma-based accelerator technology could also leadto vastly smaller synchrotron light sources which probe the structure of e.g. proteins and table-top accelerators of lowerenergy for use in hospitals or industry.

在过去的五十年中，能量和规模不断增加的加速器使我们能够探究物理世界的基本结构。这已经达到了Geneva Cern的大型强子对撞机，这是一种27公里的Longaccelerator，它发现了Higgs玻色子，即将开始搜索此类assupersymemetry的新现象。使用当前的加速器技术，未来的高能量山针将其长度相似甚至更长。作为替代方案，我们正在追求一项新技术，该技术将允许减少约10倍的长度，并且预计将通过大量分数降低成本。这里提出的想法是要影响高能Proton光束，例如在Cern中，例如plasma。等离子体中的自由，负电荷的电子被质子从其位置撞倒，但随后被带正电荷的离子吸引到后，产生了高梯度的电力“韦克菲尔德”，而振荡运动是由等位基因元素启动的。已经对激光器或电子束进行了实验，已经观察到比传统加速器高1000倍。鉴于可用质子梁的初始能量要高得多，预计它在血浆中创建的电场可以在韦克菲尔德（Wakefield）加速电子，直到将来的对撞机所需的teraelectron-volts量表，但要在一个单个阶段，但在几千公里的长度上。但是，这样的对撞机将在未来很多年，首先需要进行测试实验。醒来的合作将在CERN进行首个原理实验。该实验将使用高能量束对大约10 m的浆细胞撞击，并测量一堆电子在质子束后面的电子变化。观察到电子的重大能量变化将证明这种加速的形式的概念，迄今仅在模拟中研究了这种加速度。我们提出了一个程序进行开发的各种仪器，这将使我们能够成功构建实验并提取必要的物理学以证明这种方法的力量。关键部分是能够构建一个均匀密度的浆细胞，其长度比以前尝试的长得多得多。我们还将在适当的时间传递电子源的元素，以使其在适当的时间射击等离子体，从而感受到Proton Beam创建的Wakefield中最大的加速梯度。为了确定实验的成功，我们将测量等离子体加速电子束后等离子体和能量和空间谱的特性。 Finally, our results will improvesimulations of plasma wakefields to give us more confidence in our expectations of a larger-scale experiment and help usbest optimise its layout and capabilities.If successful, this experiment will lead to a further larger-scale project to accelerate bunches of electrons of small spatialextent with high particle numbers and ultimately a new form of acceleration which could lead to future, energy-frontierparticle physics experiments.该技术有可能按照目前的计划或所需的表现来从根本上改变高能物理的边界，但要以长度的十分之一，因此成本。随着更大的加速度梯度和较小的空间范围，基于等离子体的加速器技术也可能导致较小的同步源光源，从而探测例如用于医院或行业的蛋白质和桌面加速器。

项目成果

High-quality electron beam generation in a proton-driven hollow plasma wakefield accelerator

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevaccelbeams.20.101301
• 发表时间: 2016-10
• 期刊: Physical review accelerators and beams
• 影响因子: 1.7
• 作者: Yangmei Li;G. Xia;K. Lotov;A. Sosedkin;K. Hanahoe;O. Mete-Apsimon

AWAKE: A Proton-Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment at CERN

AWAKE：欧洲核子研究组织的质子驱动等离子体韦克场加速实验

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2015.09.022
• 发表时间: 2016
• 期刊: Nuclear and Particle Physics Proceedings
• 作者: Bracco C

Experimental Observation of Plasma Wakefield Growth Driven by the Seeded Self-Modulation of a Proton Bunch.

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.122.054801
• 发表时间: 2018-09
• 期刊: Physical review letters
• 影响因子: 8.6
• 作者: M. Turner;E. Adli;Arun Ahuja;O. Apsimon;O. Apsimon;R. Apsimon;R. Apsimon;A. Bachmann;A. Bachmann;A. Bachmann;M. B. Marin;Diego Barrientos;F. Batsch;F. Batsch;F. Batsch;J. Batkiewicz;J. Bauche;V. Olsen;M. Bernardini;B. Biskup;A. Boccardi;T. Bogey;T. Bohl;C. Bracco;F. Braunmüller;S. Burger;G. Burt;G. Burt;S. Bustamante;B. Buttenschön;A. Caldwell;M. Cascella;J. Chappell;E. Chevallay;M. Chung;D. Cooke;H. Damerau;L. Deacon;L. Deubner;A. Dexter;A. Dexter;S. Doebert;J. Farmer;V. Fedosseev;G. Fior;R. Fiorito;R. Fiorito;Ricardo A. Fonseca;F. Friebel;L. Garolfi;S. Gessner;I. Gorgisyan;A. Gorn;A. Gorn;Eduardo Granados;O. Grulke;O. Grulke;E. Gschwendtner;A. Guerrero;J. Hansen;A. Helm;J. Henderson;J. Henderson;C. Hessler;W. Höfle;M. Hüther;M. Ibison;M. Ibison;L. Jensen;S. Jolly;F. Keeble;Shinseog Kim;F. Kraus;T. Lefevre;G. LeGodec;Yichen Li-;Yichen Li-;S. Liu;N. Lopes;K. Lotov;K. Lotov;L. Brun;M. Martyanov;S. Mazzoni;D. Godoy;V. A. Minakov;V. A. Minakov;James Mitchell;James Mitchell;J. Molendijk;R. Mompo;J. Moody;M. Moreira;M. Moreira;P. Muggli;P. Muggli;E. Öz;E. Ozturk;C. Mutin;C. Pasquino;A. Pardons;F. Asmus;F. Asmus;K. Pepitone;A. Perera;A. Perera;A. Petrenko;A. Petrenko;S. Pitman;S. Pitman;G. Plyushchev;G. Plyushchev;A. Pukhov;S. Rey;K. Rieger;H. Ruhl;Janet Schmidt;I. Shalimova;E. Shaposhnikova;P. Sherwood;Luís O. Silva;L. Soby;A. Sosedkin;A. Sosedkin;R. Speroni;R. Spitsyn;R. Spitsyn;P. Tuev;P. Tuev;F. Velotti;L. Verra;L. Verra;V. Verzilov;J. Vieira;H. Vincke;C. Welsch;C. Welsch;B. Williamson;B. Williamson;M. Wing;B. Woolley;G. Xia;G. Xia

Multi-proton bunch driven hollow plasma wakefield acceleration in the nonlinear regime

• DOI: 10.1063/1.4995354
• 发表时间: 2017-07
• 期刊: arXiv: Accelerator Physics
• 作者: Yangmei Li;G. Xia;K. Lotov;A. Sosedkin;K. Hanahoe;O. Mete-Apsimon

High-quality positrons from a multi-proton bunch driven hollow plasma wakefield accelerator

• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6587/aaf121
• 发表时间: 2018-09
• 期刊: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: Y. Li;G. Xia;K. Lotov;A. Sosedkin;Yuan Zhao