Physics (Internal)

Plasma Wakefield Acceleration: Not Your Parents’ Particle Accelerator

This event is part of the HEE Seminar Series.

Abstract: With the size and cost of high energy physics machines rapidly approaching the logistical limits of feasibility, a fundamentally new method for accelerating particles up to very high energies will be required if we wish to continue to push at boundaries of the energy frontier. Two key factors tend to dominate the estimated cost of future collider designs: the overall size of the machine, and the power consumption. Plasma wakefield acceleration is a forefront technology that addresses both of these factors simultaneously by providing extremely high accelerating gradients and a high energy transfer efficiency from the accelerator to the beam. There are two primary techniques that can be used to generate the accelerating plasma wake: either by sending a high intensity laser pulse, or a dense, high energy particle beam into the plasma source. Each comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, and both are being pursued as a potential future collider technology. In this talk, I will present recent results from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the acceleration of a discrete bunch of electrons in a high gradient, high efficiency plasma wakefield accelerator driven by a high peak-current electron beam has been demonstrated for the first time.