Development of self-modulation as a function of plasma length

2024/12/17 by A. Clairembaud, M. Turner, Clairembaud, Arthur +3
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Accelerator Physics (physics.acc-ph) #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Energetic Materials and Combustion #FOS: Physical sciences #Plasma Diagnostics and Applications #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.12922

openalex publication_date 2024/12/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We use numerical simulations to determine whether the saturation length of the self-modulation (SM) instability of a long proton bunch in plasma could be determined by measuring the radius of the bunch halo SM produces. Results show that defocused protons acquire their maximum transverse momentum and exit the wakefields at a distance approximately equal to the saturation length of the wakefields. This suggests that measuring the radius of the halo as a function of plasma length in the AWAKE experiment would yield a very good estimate for the saturation length of SM.

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