Advanced acceleration techniques are actively being pursued to expand the energy frontier of future colliders. Although the minimum energy of interest for the next lepton collider will be determined by high – energy physics experiments presently underway, it is anticipated that over 1 TeV center – of – mass energy will be required. The laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) is one promising technique for reducing the size and cost of future colliders — if the needed laser technology is developed. LPAs are of great interest because of their ability to sustain extremely large acceleration gradients, resulting in compact accelerating structures
Laser – plasma acceleration is realized by using a short – pulse, high – intensity laser to ponderomotively drive a large electron plasma wave (or wakefield) in an underdense plasma. The electron plasma wave has relativistic phase velocity – approximately the group velocity of the laser – and can support large electric fields in the direction of propagation of the laser.
Estimated near term achievable goals are
1 teraVolt laser plasma accelerator would be 100-500 meters long
10 teravolt laser plasma accelerator would be 1000-5000 meters long
At the end of 2011- partial state of the work needed
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