Theoretical and numerical studies of the phase velocity of wakefields in plasma driven by self-modulated proton beams with electron beam seeding

Abstract

Significant progress has been made in the studies of wakefield excitation in plasma by a self-modulated high energy proton beam in the past decade. The electron beams accelerated up to 2 GeV by using such a wakefield were demonstrated in the AWAKE experiment at CERN in 2018. Aiming at the application of high energy particle accelerators, new ideas have been investigated in recent years, such as seeding the proton beam self-modulation with an electron beam in order to enhance the strength and stability of the wakefield or adding a density transition in the plasma distribution to enhance the phase velocity and the strength of the wakefield. Here in this work, we investigate the effects of electron beam seeding on the phase velocity of the wakefield generated by the modulated proton beam in plasma. The physical mechanisms responsible for the phase velocity change and the roles played by the electron beam seeding are discussed. The theoretical analysis and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that both the growth rate and the phase velocity of the wakefield generated by the modulated proton beam can be enhanced by the electron beam seeding. The higher the charge density of the electron beam, the more significant the enhancement effects. The effects of electron beam energy and proton beam longitudinal profiles on the increase of phase velocity are also studied. It is shown that the evolution of the electron beam distribution has a significant effect on the seeding self-modulation process, and thus affecting the phase velocity. A self-focusing electron seeding beam can increase the phase velocity of the wakefield even to superluminal while an expanding seeding beam can reduce the phase velocity and destroy the stability of the whole process. This work may benefit the proton beam seeding self-modulation acceleration and its applications.