Canada’s contribution to AWAKE – a plasma wakefield experiment at CERN

该提案寻求为加拿大为高级尾波场实验(Awake)做出重要贡献的资金，该实验是等离子体尾波场加速(PWFA)研究领域的领先全球项目之一。在过去的十年中，等离子体中的诱导尾迹加速方案已经显示出超过GV/m的梯度，比现有的射频技术高出3个数量级以上，并有望在未来为粒子物理、X射线科学和医疗应用提供更紧凑和负担得起的加速器。在PWFA项目中独一无二的，也是第一个此类项目是由欧洲核子研究中心SPS同步加速器的400 GeV质子束驱动的觉醒实验。质子单级能量转移的潜力，以及它相对于多级电子驱动替代能源的优势，是引人注目的。与此同时，通过长质子束实现与毫米长尺度上的等离子体波的同步是一个挑战。因此，实验的一个主要焦点是证明一种新的机制，即等离子体中的质子束纵向自调制，这对这一概念的成功至关重要。第一批用于实验的质子预计将于2016年初投入使用。

This proposal seeks funding for Canada to make an important contribution to the Advanced Wakefield Experiment (AWAKE), one of the leading global projects in the field of plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) research. In the past decade acceleration schemes by induced wakefield in plasmas have demonstrated gradients in excess of GV/m, more than 3 orders of magnitude higher than existing radio frequency technology, and hold promise of more compact and affordable future accelerators for particle physics, X-ray science, and medical applications. Unique among PWFA projects and first of its kind is the AWAKE experiment driven by 400 GeV proton beam from the CERN SPS synchrotron. The potential of single-stage energy transfer by proton, and its advantage over multi-stage electron driven alternatives, are compelling. In the meantime achieving synchronism with the plasma wave at a mm length scale by the long proton bunch is a challenge. A major focus of the experiment is thus to demonstrate a novel mechanism, proton bunch longitudinal self-modulation inside the plasma, critical to the success of this concept. First protons to the experiment are expected early in 2016.