CERN Accelerating science

The AWAKE experiment recently approved at CERN will use the self-modulation instability (SMI) of long (12 cm), relativistic (400 GeV/c) proton bunches in dense plasmas to drive wakefields with accelerating gradients at the GV/m level. These accelerating gradients will be probed by externally injected electrons. In order to preserve the plasma uniformity required for the SMI the first experiments will use on-axis injection of a low energy 10-20 MeV electron beam collinearly with the proton beam. In this article we describe the physics of electron injection into the proton driven SMI wakefields. Requirements on the injected electron beam are determined and the final accelerated beam parameters are obtained via numerical simulations.