Proton driven plasma wakefield generation in a parabolic plasma channel

Abstract

An analytical model for the interaction of charged particle beams and plasma for a wakefield generation in a parabolic plasma channel is presented. In the suggested model, the plasma density profile has a minimum value on the propagation axis. A Gaussian proton beam is employed to excite the plasma wakefield in the channel. While previous works investigated on the simulation results and on the perturbation techniques in case of laser wakefield accelerations for a parabolic channel, we have carried out an analytical model and solved the accelerating field equation for proton beam in a parabolic plasma channel. The solution is expressed by Whittaker (hypergeometric) functions. Effects of plasma channel radius, proton bunch parameters and plasma parameters on the accelerating processes of proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration are studied. Results show that the higher accelerating fields could be generated in the PWFA scheme with modest reductions in the bunch size. Also, the modest increment in plasma channel radius is needed to obtain maximum accelerating gradient. In addition, the simulations of longitudinal and total radial wakefield in parabolic plasma channel are presented using LCODE. It is observed that the longitudinal wakefield generated by the bunch decreases with the distance behind the bunch while total radial wakefield increases with the distance behind the bunch.