2024/06/04 by Pratik Manwani, Y.J. Kang, Manwani, P. +9
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Accelerator Physics (physics.acc-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Plasma Diagnostics and Applications #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) #Plasma and Flow Control in Aerodynamics #Vacuum and Plasma Arcs
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2406.02719
openalex publication_date 2024/06/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In the underdense (blowout) regime of plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA), the particle beam is denser than the plasma. Under these conditions, the plasma electrons are nearly completely rarefacted from the beam channel, resulting in a nominally uniform ion column. Extensive investigations of this interaction assuming axisymmetry have been undertaken. However, the plasma blowout produced by a transversely asymmetric driver possesses quite different characteristics. They create an asymmetric plasma rarefaction region (bubble) which leads to asymmetric focusing in the two transverse planes. This is also accompanied by an undesired non-uniform accelerating gradient. The asymmetric blowout cross-section is found through simulation to be elliptical, and treating it as such permits a simple extension of the symmetric theory. In particular, focusing fields linear in both transverse directions exist in the bubble. The form of the wake potential and the concomitant matching conditions in this elliptical cavity are discussed in this paper. We also discuss bubble boundary estimation in the long driver limit and applications of the asymmetric features of the wakefield.