Presented by: Spencer Gessner, Stanford University, SLAC

Abstract: Recent experiments at SLAC demonstrated beam-driven plasma acceleration with accelerating gradients in excess of 150 GeV/m. That’s nearly 10,000 times the accelerating gradient produced by RF cavities in the SLAC linac! Plasma accelerators are a promising technology for future ultra-high energy colliders and were identified by the P5 Panel as a path toward 10 TeV collisions. In this talk, I’ll review the physics of nonlinear plasma wakefield acceleration. What makes the plasma bubble nearly-ideal for electron acceleration? Why does it fail for positron acceleration? I’ll conclude by describing the US 10 TeV Wakefield Collider Design Study and the next steps in plasma accelerator R&D.

Host: Michael Litos