A Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment has been proposed as an approach to eventually accelerate an electron beam to the TeV energy range in a single plasma section. To verify this novel technique, a proof of principle R&D; experiment, AWAKE, is planned at CERN using 400 GeV proton bunches from the SPS. An electron beam will be injected into the plasma cell to probe the accelerating wakefield. The AWAKE experiment will be installed in the CNGS facility profiting from existing infrastructure where only minor modifications need to be foreseen. The design of the experimental area and the proton and electron beam lines are shown. The achievable SPS proton bunch properties and their reproducibility have been measured and are presented.

The Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE) at CERN foresees the simultaneous operation of a proton, a laser and an electron beam. The first stage of the experiment will consist in proving the self-modulation, in the plasma, of a long proton bunch into micro-bunches. The success of this experiment requires an almost perfect concentricity of the proton and laser beam, over the full length of the plasma cell. The complexity of integrating the laser into the proton beam line and fulfilling the strict requirements in terms of pointing precision of the proton beam at the plasma cell are described. The second stage of the experiment foresees also the injection of electron bunches to probe the accelerating wakefields driven by the proton beam. Studies were performed to evaluate the possibility of injecting the electron beam parallel and with an offset to the beam axis. This option would imply that protons and electrons will have to share the last few meters of a common beam line. Issues and possible solutions for this case are presented.

The AWAKE activities and progress since the approval of the experiment in August 2013 are described.

Plasma wakefield acceleration is a promising alternative reaching accelerating fields a magnitude of up to 3 higher (GV/m) when compared to conventional RF acceleration. AWAKE, world’s first proton-driven plasma wakefield experiment, was launched at CERN to verify this concept. In this experiment proton bunches at 400 GeV/c will be extracted from the CERN SPS and sent to the plasma cell, where the proton beam drives the plasma wakefields and creates a large accelerating field. This large gradient of ~GV/m can be achieved by relying on the self-modulation instability (SMI) of the proton beam; when seeded by ionization through a short laser pulse, a train of micro-bunches with a period on the order of the plasma wavelength (~mm) develops, which can drive such a large amplitude wake from a long proton bunch (~12 cm). An electron beam will be injected into the plasma to probe the accelerating wakefield. The AWAKE experiment is being installed at CERN in the former CNGS facility, which must be modified to match the AWAKE requirements. First proton beam to the plasma cell is expected by end 2016.

AWAKE, an Advanced Wakefield Experiment is launched at CERN to verify the proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration concept. Proton bunches at 400 GeV/c will be extracted from the CERN SPS and sent along a 750 m long proton line to a plasma cell, a Rubidium vapour source, where the proton beam drives wakefields reaching accelerating gradients of several gigavolts per meter. A high power laser pulse will copropagate within the proton bunch creating the plasma by ionizing the (initially) neutral gas. An electron beam will be injected into the plasma cell to probe the accelerating wakefield. The AWAKE experiment will be installed in the CNGS facility. First proton beam to the plasma cell is expected by end 2016. The installation planning and the baseline parameters of the experiment are shown. The design of the experimental area and the integration of the new beam-lines as well as the experimental equipment are presented. The needed modifications of the infrastructure in the facility and a few challenges are highlighted.

New acceleration technology is mandatory for the future elucidation of fundamental particles and their interactions. A promising approach is to exploit the properties of plasmas. Past research has focused on creating large-amplitude plasma waves by injecting an intense laser pulse or an electron bunch into the plasma. However, the maximum energy gain of electrons accelerated in a single plasma stage is limited by the energy of the driver. Proton bunches are the most promising drivers of wakefields to accelerate electrons to the TeV energy scale in a single stage. An experimental program at CERN { the AWAKE experiment { has been launched to study in detail the important physical processes and to demonstrate the power of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. Here we review the physical principles and some experimental considerations for a future proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerator.

Recent simulations have shown that a high-energy proton bunch can excite strong plasma wakefields and accelerate a bunch of electrons to the energy frontier in a single stage of acceleration. This scheme could lead to a future $ep$ collider using the LHC for the proton beam and a compact electron accelerator of length 170 m, producing electrons of energy up to 100 GeV. The parameters of such a collider are discussed as well as conceptual layouts within the CERN accelerator complex. The physics of plasma wakefield acceleration will also be introduced, with the AWAKE experiment, a proof of principle demonstration of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration, briefly reviewed, as well as the physics possibilities of such an $ep$ collider.

Plasma acceleration with electron or proton driver beams is a challenging opportunity for high energy physics. An energy doubling experiment with electron drivers was successfully performed at SLAC and a key experiment AWAKE with proton drivers is on schedule at CERN. Simulations play an important role in choosing the best experimental conditions and in interpreting the results. The Vlasov equation is the theoretical tool to describe the interaction of a driver particle beam or a driver laser pulse with a plasma. Collective effects, such as tune shift and mismatch instabilities, appear in high intensity standard accelerators and are described by the Poisson-Vlasov equation. In the paper we review the Vlasov equation in electrostatic and fully electromagnetic case. The general framework of variational principles is used to derive the equation, the local form of the balance equations and related conservation laws. In the electrostatic case we remind the analytic Kapchinskij-Vladimirskij (K-V) model and we propose an extension of of the adiabatic theory for Hamiltonian systems, which ensures stability for perturbation of size ǫ on times of order 1/ǫ . The variational framework is used to derive the Maxwell-Vlasov equations and related conservation laws and to briefly sketch the particle-in-cell (PIC) approximation schemes. Finally the proton-driven acceleration is examined in the linear and quasi-linear regime. A PIC simulation with the code ALaDyn developed at the Bologna University is presented to illustrate the longitudinal and transverse fields evolution which allow a witness electron bunch to be accelerated with a gradient of a few GeV/m. We also present some remarks on future perspectives.

AWAKE project, a proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PDPWA) experiment is approved by CERN. The PDPWA scheme consists of a seeding laser, a drive beam to establish the accelerating wakefields within the plasma cell; and a witness beam to be accelerated. The drive beam protons will be provided by the CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). The plasma ionisation will be performed by a seeding laser and the drive beam protons to produce the accelerating wakefields. After establishing the wakefields, witness beam, namely, electron beam from a dedicated source should be injected into the plasma cell. The primary goal of this experiment is to demonstrate acceleration of a 5-15$\,$MeV single bunch electron beam up to 1$\,$GeV in a 10$\,$m of plasma. This paper explores the possibility of an RF photocathode as the electron source for this PDPWA scheme based on the existing PHIN photo-injector at CERN. The modifications to the existing design, preliminary beam dynamics simulations in order to provide the required electron beam are presented in this paper.

New acceleration technology is mandatory for the future elucidation of fundamental particles and their interactions. A promising approach is to exploit the properties of plasmas. Past research has focused on creating large-amplitude plasma waves by injecting an intense laser pulse or an electron bunch into the plasma. However, the maximum energy gain of electrons accelerated in a single plasma stage is limited by the energy of the driver. Proton bunches are the most promising drivers of wakefields to accelerate electrons to the TeV energy scale in a single stage. An experimental program at CERN -- the AWAKE experiment -- has been launched to study in detail the important physical processes and to demonstrate the power of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. Here we review the physical principles and some experimental considerations for a future proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerator.

Plasma Wakefield acceleration is a rapidly developing field which appears to be a promising candidate technology for future high-energy accelerators. The Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment has been proposed as an approach to eventually accelerate an electron beam to the TeV energy range in a single plasma section. To verify this novel technique, a proof-of-principle demonstration experiment, AWAKE, is proposed using 400 GeV proton bunches from the SPS. Detailed studies on the identification of the best site for the installation of the AWAKE facility resulted in proposing the CNGS facility as best location. Design and integration layouts covering the beam line, the experimental area and all interfaces and services are shown. Among other issues, radiation protection, safety and civil engineering constraints are raised.

The key element in the Proton-Driven-Plasma-Wake-Field-Accelerator (AWAKE) project is the generation of highly uniform plasma from Rubidium vapor. The standard way to achieve full ionization is to use high power laser which can assure the over-barrier-ionization (OBI) along the 10 meters long active region. The Wigner-team in Budapest is investigating an alternative way of uniform plasma generation. The proposed Resonance Enhanced Multi Photon Ionization (REMPI) scheme probably can be realized by much less laser power. In the following the resonant pre-excitations of the Rb atoms are investigated, theoretically and the status report about the preparatory work on the experiment are presented.

Obtaining the shortest possible bunch length in combination with the smallest transverse emittances and highest bunch intensity — this is the wish list of the proton-bunch driven, plasma wakefield acceleration experiment AWAKE currently under feasibility study at CERN. A few measurement sessions were conducted to determine the achievable bunch properties and their reproducibility. To obtain a short bunch length, the bunches were rotated in longitudinal phase space using the maximum available RF voltage prior to extraction. Measurements were carried out in two optics with different transition energies. The main performance limitation is longitudinal beam instability that develops during the acceleration ramp. With lower transition energy, beam stability is improved, but the bucket area is smaller for the same voltage. Based on the results obtained, we shall discuss the choice of optics, the impact of longitudinal instabilities, the importance of reproducibility, as well as options for improving the bunch parameters.

The world’s first proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment (AWAKE) is presently being studied at CERN. The experimentwill use a high energy proton beam extracted from the SPS as driver. Two possible locations for installing the AWAKE facility were considered: the West Area and the CNGS beam line. The previous transfer line from the SPS to the West Area was completely dismantled in 2005 and would need to be fully re-designed and re-built. For this option, geometric constraints for radiation protection reasons would limit the maximum proton beam energy to 300 GeV. The existing CNGS line could be used by applying only minor changes to the lattice for the final focusing and the interface between the proton beam and the laser, required for plasma ionisation and bunch-modulation seeding. The beam line design studies performed for the two options are presented.

The AWAKE Collaboration has been formed in order to demonstrate proton driven plasma wakefield acceleration for the first time. This technology could lead to future colliders of high energy but of a much reduced length compared to proposed linear accelerators. The SPS proton beam in the CNGS facility will be injected into a 10m plasma cell where the long proton bunches will be modulated into significantly shorter micro-bunches. These micro-bunches will then initiate a strong wakefield in the plasma with peak fields above 1 GV/m that will be harnessed to accelerate a bunch of electrons from about 20MeV to the GeV scale within a few meters. The experimental program is based on detailed numerical simulations of beam and plasma interactions. The main accelerator components, the experimental area and infrastructure required as well as the plasma cell and the diagnostic equipment are discussed in detail. First protons to the experiment are expected at the end of 2015 and this will be followed by an initial 3–4 year experimental program; the timeline, structural aspects and needed resources of the experiment are also detailed. The experiment will inform future larger-scale tests of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration and applications to high energy colliders.

This note summarises the results of two MDs on bunch rotation at SPS flat top. The first MD was carried out on 11th July 2012 with the Q26 optics, while the second MD on the 30th October 2012 used the Q20 optics. To obtain a short bunch length, which is important for the plasma wake-field acceleration project AWAKE, the bunches have been rotated in longitudinal phase space on the SPS flat top. The aim of the MDs was to obtain first estimates of what bunch length, intensity, and transverse emittances - which are crucial for the project - can be achieved for high-intensity single bunches.