Plasma wakefield acceleration beyond the dephasing limit with 400 GeV proton driver

A new regime of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration is discovered, in which the plasma nonlinearity increases the phase velocity of the excited wave compared to that of the protons. If the beam charge is much larger than minimally necessary to excite a nonlinear wave, there is sufficient freedom in choosing the longitudinal plasma density profile to make the wave speed close to the speed of light. This allows electrons or positrons to be accelerated to about 200 GeV with a 400 GeV proton driver.

Automated summary

A new regime of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration has been discovered, where the nonlinearity of plasma can increase the phase velocity of the excited wave, enabling the acceleration of electrons or positrons to about 200 GeV with a 400 GeV proton driver by adjusting the plasma density profile and beam charge.