CERN Accelerating science

The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) aims at studying plasma wake field generation and electron acceleration driven by proton bunches. It is a proof-of-principle R&D; experiment at CERN and the world's first proton driven plasma wake field acceleration experiment. The experiment uses the 400 GeV proton beam from the SPS which travels through a 10 m long Rb-vapour plasma cell where it gets self-modulated and generates the plasma wake fields. Eventually an electron beam is injected externally to probe the wake-fields. AWAKE has completed several experimental campaigns starting in 2016. Results from the initial characterization of the plasma cell and measurements of the seeded self-modulation of the proton beam will be presented. First results on electron witness beam acceleration using the proton driven plasma wake field have been obtained recently and are presented in this paper.