135 research outputs found
Chromatic Dynamics of an Electron Beam in a Plasma Based Accelerator
We present a theoretical investigation of the chromatic dynamics of the
witness beam within a plasma based accelerator. We derive the single particle
motion of an electron in an ion column within a nonlinear, blowout wake
including adiabatic dampening and adiabatic variations in plasma density. Using
this, we calculate the evolution of the beam moments and emittance for an
electron beam. Our model can handle near arbitrary longitudinal phase space
distributions. We include the effects of energy change in the beam, imperfect
wake loading, initial transverse offsets of the beam, and mismatch between the
beam and plasma. We use our model to derive analytic saturation lengths for the
projected, longitudinal slice, and energy slice emittance under different beam
loading conditions. Further, we show that the centroid oscillations and spot
sizes vary between the slices and the variation depends strongly on the beam
loading. Next, we show how a beam evolves in a full plasma source with density
ramps and show that the integral of the plasma density along the ramp
determines the impact on the beam. Finally, we derive several simple scaling
laws that show how to design a plasma based injector to produce a target beam
energy and energy spread.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure
Hot spots and dark current in advanced plasma wakefield accelerators
Dark current can spoil witness bunch beam quality and acceleration efficiency in particle beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerators. In advanced schemes, hot spots generated by the drive beam or the wakefield can release electrons from higher ionization threshold levels in the plasma media. These electrons may be trapped inside the plasma wake and will then accumulate dark current, which is generally detrimental for a clear and unspoiled plasma acceleration process. Strategies for generating clean and robust, dark current free plasma wake cavities are devised and analyzed, and crucial aspects for experimental realization of such optimized scenarios are discussed
All-optical density downramp injection in electron-driven plasma wakefield accelerators
Injection of well-defined, high-quality electron populations into plasma waves is a key challenge of plasma wakefield accelerators. Here, we report on the first experimental demonstration of plasma density downramp injection in an electron-driven plasma wakefield accelerator, which can be controlled and tuned in all-optical fashion by mJ-level laser pulses. The laser pulse is directed across the path of the plasma wave before its arrival, where it generates a local plasma density spike in addition to the background plasma by tunnelling ionization of a high ionization threshold gas component. This density spike distorts the plasma wave during the density downramp, causing plasma electrons to be injected into the plasma wave. By tuning the laser pulse energy and shape, highly flexible plasma density spike profiles can be designed, enabling dark current free, versatile production of high-quality electron beams. This in turn permits creation of unique injected beam configurations such as counter-oscillating twin beamlets
High-field plasma acceleration in a high-ionization-potential gas
International audiencePlasma accelerators driven by particle beams are a very promising future accelerator technology as they can sustain high accelerating fields over long distances with high energy efficiency. They rely on the excitation of a plasma wave in the wake of a drive beam. To generate the plasma, a neutral gas can be field-ionized by the head of the drive beam, in which case the distance of acceleration and energy gain can be strongly limited by head erosion. Here we overcome this limit and demonstrate that electrons in the tail of a drive beam can be accelerated by up to 27 GeV in a high-ionization-potential gas (argon), boosting their initial 20.35 GeV energy by 130%. Particle-in-cell simulations show that the argon plasma is sustaining very high electric fields, of ~150 GV/m, over ~20 cm. The results open new possibilities for the design of particle beam drivers and plasma sources
Search for Matter-Dependent Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations in Super-Kamiokande
We consider muon neutrino to tau neutrino oscillations in the context of the
Mass Varying Neutrino (MaVaN) model, where the neutrino mass can vary depending
on the electron density along the flight path of the neutrino. Our analysis
assumes a mechanism with dependence only upon the electron density, hence
ordinary matter density, of the medium through which the neutrino travels.
Fully-contained, partially-contained and upward-going muon atmospheric neutrino
data from the Super--Kamiokande detector, taken from the entire SK--I period of
1489 live days, are compared to MaVaN model predictions. We find that, for the
case of 2-flavor oscillations, and for the specific models tested, oscillation
independent of electron density is favored over density dependence. Assuming
maximal mixing, the best-fit case and the density-independent case do not
differ significantly.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
Solar neutrino measurements in Super-Kamiokande-II
The results of the second phase of the Super-Kamiokande solar neutrino
measurement are presented and compared to the first phase. The solar neutrino
flux spectrum and time-variation as well as oscillation results are
statistically consistent with the first phase and do not show spectral
distortion. The time-dependent flux measurement of the combined first and
second phases coincides with the full period of solar cycle 23 and shows no
correlation with solar activity. The measured boron 8 total flux is 2.38
+/-0.05(stat.) +0.16-0.15(sys.) X 10^6 cm^-2 sec^-1 and the day-night
difference is found to be -6.3 +/-4.2(stat.) +/-3.7(sys.) %. There is no
evidence of systematic tendencies between the first and second phases
A Measurement of Atmospheric Neutrino Flux Consistent with Tau Neutrino Appearance
A search for the appearance of tau neutrinos from \mutau oscillations in the
atmospheric neutrinos has been performed using 1489.2 days of atmospheric
neutrino data from the Super-Kamiokande-I experiment. A best fit tau neutrino
appearance signal of 138 48 (stat.) (sys.) events is
obtained with an expectation of 78 26 (sys.). The hypothesis of no tau
neutrino appearance is disfavored by 2.4 sigma.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, submitted to PR
Evidence for the Appearance of Atmospheric Tau Neutrinos in Super-Kamiokande
Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino data were fit with an unbinned maximum
likelihood method to search for the appearance of tau leptons resulting from
the interactions of oscillation-generated tau neutrinos in the detector.
Relative to the expectation of unity, the tau normalization is found to be
1.42 \pm 0.35 \ (stat) {\}^{+0.14}_{-0.12}\ (syst) excluding the
no-tau-appearance hypothesis, for which the normalization would be zero, at the
3.8 level. We estimate that 180.1 \pm 44.3\ (stat)
{\}^{+17.8}_{-15.2}\ (syst) tau leptons were produced in the 22.5 kton
fiducial volume of the detector by tau neutrinos during the 2806 day running
period. In future analyses, this large sample of selected tau events will allow
the study of charged current tau neutrino interaction physics with oscillation
produced tau neutrinos.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. This is the version as published in Physical
Review Letters including the supplemental figure. A typographical error in
the description of figure 3 is also correcte
Generation and acceleration of electron bunches from a plasma photocathode
Plasma waves generated in the wake of intense, relativistic laser1,2 or particle beams3,4 can accelerate electron bunches to gigaelectronvolt energies in centimetre-scale distances. This allows the realization of compact accelerators with emerging applications ranging from modern light sources such as the free-electron laser to energy frontier lepton colliders. In a plasma wakefield accelerator, such multi-gigavolt-per-metre wakefields can accelerate witness electron bunches that are either externally injected5,6 or captured from the background plasma7,8. Here we demonstrate optically triggered injection9–11 and acceleration of electron bunches, generated in a multi-component hydrogen and helium plasma employing a spatially aligned and synchronized laser pulse. This ‘plasma photocathode’ decouples injection from wake excitation by liberating tunnel-ionized helium electrons directly inside the plasma cavity, where these cold electrons are then rapidly boosted to relativistic velocities. The injection regime can be accessed via optical11 density down-ramp injection12–16 and is an important step towards the generation of electron beams with unprecedented low transverse emittance, high current and 6D-brightness17. This experimental path opens numerous prospects for transformative plasma wakefield accelerator applications based on ultrahigh-brightness beams
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