Discharge plasmas as a medium a collider based on wakefield accelerators

放电等离子体作为介质基于尾场加速器的对撞机

• 批准号: 2892146
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2892146
• 关键词: Discharge; plasmas; medium; collider; based

Wakefield accelerators use the immense fields produced in plasmas to accelerate particles to high energy. Energy gains > GeV are now routinely produced at laser facilities around the world over only centimetre distances. However, the relatively low energy available in even the most powerful laser pulse is a limitation on the particle's energy gain. By contrast the ion beams available at CERN have energy that exceeds 10's of kJ (if not more). This means that instead of accelerating particles over centimetres, there is the potential to accelerate over tens if not hundreds of metres. This would produce an accelerator relevant to high-energy physics experiments.The AWAKE experiment at CERN has already produced exciting results using the SPS beam demonstrating 2 GeV energy gain of electrons in a 10m cell. To overcome the fact that the SPS beam is too long to ideally drive a wakefield, a process called self-modulation has been used to produce beamlets within the SPS beam that are resonant with a wakefield. This is initiated in a Rb cell by a laser that ionises the plasma as the proton beam is passing through it. However, the use of the ionising laser puts a limit on the acceleration length.We have proposed (along with IST Lisbon) using a discharge plasma that would enable acceleration lengths well in excess of the 10m available now. But for controlled acceleration the plasma density must be controlled to better than 1%, and it may be further necessary to have ramps in plasma density to optimise the acceleration process. Hence, in this project, we will look to diagnose and model the generation of large scale (metre long) plasmas, using the prototype discharge we have here in the Blackett Lab. We will also model the interaction of the SPS proton beam with our accelerator stage. We will then look further to optimise the plasma profile to improve the acceleration. These investigations will be performed with a view to implementing both the discharge and the diagnostics on future runs of AWAKE at CERN.

韦克菲尔德加速器利用等离子体中产生的巨大磁场将粒子加速到高能量。现在，在世界各地的激光设备上，仅在厘米距离上就能常规地产生100亿GeV的能量增益。然而，即使是最强大的激光脉冲的能量也相对较低，这限制了粒子的能量增益。相比之下，欧洲核子研究中心可用的离子束能量超过10千焦（如果不是更多的话）。这意味着不是加速粒子超过几厘米，而是有可能加速超过几十米，如果不是几百米的话。这将产生一个与高能物理实验相关的加速器。欧洲核子研究中心的AWAKE实验已经产生了令人兴奋的结果，使用SPS光束展示了电子在10米电池中的2 GeV能量增益。为了克服SPS光束太长而无法理想地驱动尾流场的事实，一种称为自调制的过程已被用于在SPS光束中产生与尾流场共振的光束。这是在Rb细胞中由激光引起的，当质子束通过等离子体时，激光使等离子体电离。然而，电离激光的使用限制了加速长度。我们已经提议（与里斯本理工学院一起）使用放电等离子体，这将使加速度长度远远超过目前可用的10米。但为了控制加速，等离子体密度必须控制在1%以上，并且可能还需要有等离子体密度的斜坡来优化加速过程。因此，在这个项目中，我们将使用我们在布莱克特实验室的原型放电来诊断和模拟大规模（一米长）等离子体的产生。我们还将模拟SPS质子束与我们的加速器阶段的相互作用。然后，我们将进一步优化等离子体剖面，以提高加速度。这些调查的目的是为了在欧洲核子研究中心的未来运行中实施AWAKE的放电和诊断。