Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

K. V. Lotov

Publications and source records attributed to K. V. Lotov.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2019

First fully kinetic three-dimensional simulation of the AWAKE baseline scenario

The "Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment" (AWAKE) aims to accelerate leptons via proton-beam-driven wakefield acceleration. It comprises extensive numerical studies as well as experiments at the CERN laboratory. The baseline scenario incorporates a plasma volume of approximately $62\,\mathrm{cm}^3$. The plasma wavelength is about $1.25\,\mathrm{mm}$ and needs to be adequately resolved, using a minimum of $130$ points per plasma wavelength, in order to accurately reproduce the physics. The baseline scenario incorporates the proton beam micro-bunching, the concurrent non-linear wakefield growth as well as the off-axis electron beam injection, trapping and acceleration. We present results for the first three-dimensional simulation of this baseline scenario with a full model, using a sufficient resolution. The simulation consumed about $22\,\mathrm{Mch}$ of computer resources and scaled up to 32768 cores, thanks to a multitude of adaptions, improvements and optimization of the simulation code PSC. Through this large-scale simulation effort we were able to verify the results of reduced-model simulations as well as identify important novel effects during the electron injection process.

physics.comp-ph↗
arXiv2019

Experimental observation of proton bunch modulation in a plasma, at varying plasma densities

We give direct experimental evidence for the observation of the full transverse self-modulation of a relativistic proton bunch propagating through a dense plasma. The bunch exits the plasma with a density modulation resulting from radial wakefield effects with a period reciprocal to the plasma frequency. We show that the modulation is seeded by using an intense laser pulse co-propagating with the proton bunch which creates a relativistic ionization front within the bunch. We show by varying the plasma density over one order of magnitude that the modulation period scales with the expected dependence on the plasma density.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2018

Acceleration of electrons in the plasma wakefield of a proton bunch

High energy particle accelerators have been crucial in providing a deeper understanding of fundamental particles and the forces that govern their interactions. In order to increase the energy or reduce the size of the accelerator, new acceleration schemes need to be developed. Plasma wakefield acceleration, in which the electrons in a plasma are excited, leading to strong electric fields, is one such promising novel acceleration technique. Pioneering experiments have shown that an intense laser pulse or electron bunch traversing a plasma, drives electric fields of 10s GV/m and above. These values are well beyond those achieved in conventional RF accelerators which are limited to ~0.1 GV/m. A limitation of laser pulses and electron bunches is their low stored energy, which motivates the use of multiple stages to reach very high energies. The use of proton bunches is compelling, as they have the potential to drive wakefields and accelerate electrons to high energy in a single accelerating stage. The long proton bunches currently available can be used, as they undergo self-modulation, a particle-plasma interaction which longitudinally splits the bunch into a series of high density microbunches, which then act resonantly to create large wakefields. The AWAKE experiment at CERN uses intense bunches of protons, each of energy 400 GeV, with a total bunch energy of 19 kJ, to drive a wakefield in a 10 m long plasma. Bunches of electrons are injected into the wakefield formed by the proton microbunches. This paper presents measurements of electrons accelerated up to 2 GeV at AWAKE. This constitutes the first demonstration of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. The potential for this scheme to produce very high energy electron bunches in a single accelerating stage means that the results shown here are a significant step towards the development of future high energy particle accelerators.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2018

High-quality positrons from a multi-proton bunch driven hollow plasma wakefield accelerator

By means of hollow plasma, multiple proton bunches work well in driving nonlinear plasma wakefields and accelerate electrons to energy frontier with preserved beam quality. However, the acceleration of positrons is different because the accelerating structure is strongly charge dependent. There is a discrepancy between keeping a small normalized emittance and a small energy spread. This results from the conflict that the plasma electrons used to provide focusing to the multiple proton bunches dilute the positron bunch. By loading an extra electron bunch to repel the plasma electrons and meanwhile reducing the plasma density slightly to shift the accelerating phase with a conducive slope to the positron bunch, the positron bunch can be accelerate to 400 GeV (40% of the driver energy) with an energy spread as low as 1% and well preserved normalized emittance. The successful generation of high quality and high energy positrons paves the way to the future energy frontier lepton colliders.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2018

Dissipation of weakly nonlinear wakefields due to ion motion

In an initially uniform plasma, the lifetime of a weakly nonlinear plasma wave excited by a short driver is limited by the ion dynamics. The wakefield contains a slowly varying radial component, which results in a perturbation of the ion density profile and consequent destruction of the plasma wave. We suggest a novel method of characterizing the wave lifetime in numerical simulations quantitatively and study how the lifetime scales with the ion mass. We also discuss the implications of the limited lifetime on a recently proposed method of generating high-power terahertz radiation with counterpropagating wakefields driven by colliding laser pulses.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2018

Witness emittance growth caused by driver density fluctuations in plasma wakefield accelerators

We discovered a novel effect that can cause witness emittance growth in plasma wakefield accelerators. The effect appears in linear or moderately nonlinear plasma waves. The witness experiences a time-varying focusing force and loses quality during the time required for the drive beam to reach transverse equilibrium with the plasma wave. The higher the witness charge, the lower the emittance growth rate because of additional focusing of the witness by its own wakefield. However, the witness head always degrades, and the boundary between degraded and intact parts gradually propagates backward along the witness bunch.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2018

Amplitude enhancement of the self-modulated plasma wakefields

Seeded Self-modulation (SSM) has been demonstrated to transform a long proton bunch into many equidistant micro-bunches (e.g., the AWAKE case), which then resonantly excite strong wakefields. However, the wakefields in a uniform plasma suffer from a quick amplitude drop after reaching the peak. This is caused by a significant decrease of the wake phase velocity during self-modulation. A large number of protons slip out of focusing and decelerating regions and get lost, and thus cannot contribute to the wakefield growth. Previously suggested solutions incorporate a sharp or a linear plasma longitudinal density increase which can compensate the backward phase shift and therefore enhance the wakefields. In this paper, we propose a new plasma density profile, which can further boost the wakefield amplitude by 30%. More importantly, almost 24% of protons initially located along one plasma period survive in a micro-bunch after modulation. The underlying physics is discussed.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2018

Response of narrow cylindrical plasmas to dense charged particle beams

By combining the linear theory and numerical simulations, we study the response of a radially bounded axisymmetric plasma to relativistic charged particle beams in a wide range of plasma densities. We present analytical expressions for the magnetic field generated in the dense plasma, prove vanishing of the wakefield potential beyond the trajectory of the outermost plasma electron, and follow the wakefield potential change as the plasma density decreases. At high plasma densities, wavefronts of electron density and radial electric field are distorted because of beam charge and current neutralization, while wavefronts of wakefield potential and longitudinal electric field are not. At plasma densities lower than or of the order of beam density, multiple electron flows develop in and outside the plasma, resulting in nonzero wakefield potential around the plasma column.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2017

Plasma electron trapping in quasistatic simulations of plasma wakefield acceleration

Plasma wakefield acceleration studies currently rely considerably on simulating this effect numerically using highly specialized software. Exorbitant computational difficulty of the problem requires simplifying models and methods,limiting such software applicability. Quasistatic approximation, for example, utilizes a plasma model that does not include trapping plasma electrons by the wakefield. This article presents a method that reuses a quasistatic plasma-beam solver to calculate parameters of wakefield-trapped plasma electrons.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2017

Stable bunch trains for plasma wakefield acceleration

A train of short charged particle bunches can efficiently drive a strong plasma wakefield over a long propagation distance only if all bunches reside in focusing and decelerating phases of the wakefield. This is shown possible with equidistant bunch trains, but requires the bunch charge to increase along the train and the plasma frequency to be higher than the bunch repetition frequency.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2017

AWAKE readiness for the study of the seeded self-modulation of a 400\,GeV proton bunch

AWAKE is a proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment. % We show that the experimental setup briefly described here is ready for systematic study of the seeded self-modulation of the 400\,GeV proton bunch in the 10\,m-long rubidium plasma with density adjustable from 1 to 10$\times10^{14}$\,cm$^{-3}$. % We show that the short laser pulse used for ionization of the rubidium vapor propagates all the way along the column, suggesting full ionization of the vapor. % We show that ionization occurs along the proton bunch, at the laser time and that the plasma that follows affects the proton bunch. %

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2016

Radial equilibrium of relativistic particle bunches in plasma wakefield accelerators

Drive particle beams in linear or weakly nonlinear regimes of the plasma wakefield accelerator quickly reach a radial equilibrium with the wakefield, which is described in detail for the first time. The equilibrium beam state and self-consistent wakefields are obtained by combining analytical relationships, numerical integration, and first-principle simulations. In the equilibrium state, the beam density is strongly peaked near the axis, the beam radius is constant along the beam, and longitudinal variation of the focusing strength is balanced by varying beam emittance. The transverse momentum distribution of beam particles depends on the observation radius and is neither separable, nor Gaussian.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2016

Modification of narrow ablating capillaries under the influence of multiple femtosecond laser pulses

Powerful femtosecond laser pulses that propagate through narrow ablating capillaries cause modification of capillary walls, which is studied experimentally and theoretically. At low intensities, laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) and porous coating composed of sub-micron particles appear on the walls. At higher intensities, the surface is covered by deposited droplets of the size up to 10 $μ$m. In both cases, the ablated material forms a solid plug that completely blocks the capillary after several hundreds or thousands of pulses. The suggested theoretical model indicates that plug formation is a universal effect. It must take place in any narrow tube subject to ablation under the action of short laser pulses.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2016

Indirect Self-Modulation Instability Measurement Concept for the AWAKE Proton Beam

AWAKE, the Advanced Proton-Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment, is a proof-of-principle R&D experiment at CERN using a 400 GeV/c proton beam from the CERN SPS (longitudinal beam size sigma_z = 12 cm) which will be sent into a 10 m long plasma section with a nominal density of approx. 7x10^14 atoms/cm3 (plasma wavelength lambda_p = 1.2mm). In this paper we show that by measuring the time integrated transverse profile of the proton bunch at two locations downstream of the AWAKE plasma, information about the occurrence of the self-modulation instability (SMI) can be inferred. In particular we show that measuring defocused protons with an angle of 1 mrad corresponds to having electric fields in the order of GV/m and fully developed self-modulation of the proton bunch. Additionally, by measuring the defocused beam edge of the self-modulated bunch, information about the growth rate of the instability can be extracted. If hosing instability occurs, it could be detected by measuring a non-uniform defocused beam shape with changing radius. Using a 1 mm thick Chromox scintillation screen for imaging of the self-modulated proton bunch, an edge resolution of 0.6 mm and hence a SMI saturation point resolution of 1.2 m can be achieved.

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2015

AWAKE, The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment at CERN

The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) aims at studying plasma wakefield generation and electron acceleration driven by proton bunches. It is a proof-of-principle R&D experiment at CERN and the world's first proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment. The AWAKE experiment will be installed in the former CNGS facility and uses the 400 GeV/c proton beam bunches from the SPS. The first experiments will focus on the self-modulation instability of the long (rms ~12 cm) proton bunch in the plasma. These experiments are planned for the end of 2016. Later, in 2017/2018, low energy (~15 MeV) electrons will be externally injected to sample the wakefields and be accelerated beyond 1 GeV. The main goals of the experiment will be summarized. A summary of the AWAKE design and construction status will be presented.

physics.acc-ph↗
arXiv2015

Path to AWAKE: Evolution of the concept

This report describes the conceptual steps in reaching the design of the AWAKE experiment currently under construction at CERN. We start with an introduction to plasma wakefield acceleration and the motivation for using proton drivers. We then describe the self-modulation instability --- a key to an early realization of the concept. This is then followed by the historical development of the experimental design, where the critical issues that arose and their solutions are described. We conclude with the design of the experiment as it is being realized at CERN and some words on the future outlook. A summary of the AWAKE design and construction status as presented in this conference is given in [1].

physics.plasm-ph↗
arXiv2015

Effect of beam emittance on self-modulation of long beams in plasma wakefield accelerators

The initial beam emittance determines the maximum wakefield amplitude that can be reached as a result of beam self-modulation in the plasma. The wakefield excited by the fully self-modulated beam decreases linearly with the increase of the beam emittance. There is a value of initial emittance beyond which the self-modulation does not develop even if the instability is initiated by a strong seed perturbation. The emittance scale at which the wakefield is twice suppressed with respect to the zero-emittance case (the so called critical emittance) is determined by inability of the excited wave to confine beam particles radially and is related to beam and plasma parameters by a simple formula. The effect of beam emittance can be observed in several discussed self-modulation experiments.

physics.plasm-ph↗