AWAKE: to high energies in a single leap

Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration could accelerate electrons to the terascale in a single plasma section

5 November, 2013

Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration could accelerate electrons to the terascale in a single plasma section. To verify this novel approach, a proof-of-principle R&D experiment – the Advanced Wakefield Experiment (AWAKE) – has been launched at CERN, where it will use 400 GeV proton bunches from the Super Proton Synchrotron. AWAKE will be the first beam-driven wakefield acceleration experiment in Europe and the first proton-driven plasma-wakefield acceleration experiment in the world. The results will have a strong impact on future larger-scale R&D on this technique, for example, in accelerating electron bunches to around 100 GeV in some 100 m.

See also: Awake project website