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Proton acceleration by plasma wakefield driven by an intense proton beam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2013

Longqing Yi
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Baifei Shen*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Liangliang Ji
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Xiaomei Zhang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Wenpeng Wang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Jiancai Xu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Yahong Yu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Xiaofeng Wang
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Yin Shi
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
Zhizhan Xu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Baifei Shen, State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China. E-mail: bfshen@mail.shcnc.ac.cn

Abstract

Plasma wakefield excited by a short TeV-scale proton beam is investigated in the highly nonlinear regime. Analysis of the “bubble” field illustrates that transverse expelling force of the wakefield can be compensated by the attractive force, which originates from the co-propagating electrons within the proton bunch, leading to a collimation effect that stabilizes the beam propagation. The protons located in the beam tail can be well-confined and accelerated forward for a long distance. Two-dimensional simulations show that after a 1-TeV proton bunch propagating through plasma for a distance, several percentages of the protons achieve a remarkable energy gain. This scheme presents a potential that proton beams from conventional accelerators may gain considerable additional energy through plasmas wakefields.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

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