The AWAKE Collaboration is pursuing a demonstration of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration of electrons. The AWAKE experiment uses a \SI{400}{GeV/c} proton bunch from the CERN SPS, with a rms bunch length of 6-\SI{15}{cm}, to drive wakefields in a \SI{10}{m} long rubidium plasma with an electron density of 1014−1015cm−3. Since the drive bunch length is much longer than the plasma wavelength (λpe<\SI{3}{mm}) for these plasma densities, AWAKE performed experiments to prove that the long proton bunch self-modulates in the plasma (2017). The next step is to demonstrate acceleration of electrons in the wakefields driven by the self-modulated bunch (2018). We summarize the concept of the self-modulation measurements and describe the plans and challenges for the electron acceleration experiments.
@article{arxiv.1809.01813,
title = {Status and Prospects for the AWAKE Experiment},
author = {M. Turner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.01813},
year = {2018}
}