340 - Plasma Wakefield Acceleration with AWAKE

Guest: Edda Gschwendtner (linkedin.com/in/edda-gschwendtner-340217a0/?or…) Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Fabian Zeisberger

A major component of particle accelerators like the LHC (lhc.cern) are the actual accelerators; the current approach relies on radio frequency cavities. However, their acceleration gradient, measured in Volts per meter, is limited. This means that future accelerators, especially linear ones, will become longer and longer to reach the desired energies. A new approach to particle acceleration relies on plasma wakefields (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_acceleration), this technology can deliver orders of magnitude more acceleration per distance. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWAKE is a proof of concept experiment at CERN that uses proton beams to produce the wake field. In this episode we chat with Edda Gschwendtner (linkedin.com/in/edda-gschwendtner-340217a0/?or…), the leader of this project.

Introduction of Edda Gschwendtner and Accelerators
00:03:20
Edda Gschwendtner (tedxcern.web.cern.ch/speakers/edda-gschwendtner) | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN | ATLAS experiment (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATLAS_experiment) | Large Hadron Collider (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider) | CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN_Neutrinos_to_Gran_S…) | AWAKE >en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWAKE>; (Omega Tau 94 - Neutrinos (omegataupodcast.net/94-neutrinos)) | Particle accelerator (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_accelerator) | Circular accelerator (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_accelerator#Cir…) | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclotron | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchrotron | Linear particle accelarator (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_particle_accelera…) | Future Circular Collider (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Circular_Collider) | Gustav Ising (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Ising) | Rolf Widerøe (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolf_Wider%C3%B8e) | International Linear Collider (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Linear_Col…) | Compact Linear Collider (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Linear_Collider) | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadron | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron | Synchrotron radiation (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchrotron_radiation) | Higgs Boson (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson)

Functionality and Purpose of AWAKE
00:18:15
Plasma acceleration (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_acceleration) | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics) | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion | Nucleus (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_nucleus)

Goal of AWAKE
00:28:33
John Dawson (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Dawson) | Super Proton Synchrotron (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Proton_Synchrotron)

Current state and challenges of AWAKE
00:35:50
Self-phase modulation (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-phase_modulation)

Future of the Project
00:44:38
Dark photon (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_photon) | en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter