In this article, we concentrate on the basic physics of relativistic plasma wave accelerators. The generation of relativistic plasma waves by intense lasers or electron beams in low-density plasmas is important in the quest for producing ultra-high acceleration gradients for accelerators. A number of methods are being pursued vigorously to achieve ultra-high acceleration gradients using various...

A nonlinear multiwave model that describes the interaction of an electron beam, plasma waves, and electromagnetic waves in a cold plasma is derived and studied. The derivation, which is based on slow amplitude and phase change approximations, begins with the electromagnetic Lagrangian coupled to an electron beam, a background plasma, and electrostatic and electromagnetic waves. The model obtain...

The Voyager 1 plasma wave instrument detected many familiar types of plasma waves during the encounter with Saturn, including ion-acoustic waves and electron plasma oscillations upstream of the bow shock, an intense burst of electrostatic noise at the shock, and chorus, hiss, electrostatic electron cyclotron waves, and upper hybrid resonance emissions in the inner magnetosphere. A clocklike Sat...

A comparison is made between the interaction of electron bunches and intense laser pulses with plasma. The laser pulse is modelled with photon kinetic theory, i.e. a representation of the electromagnetic field in terms of classical quasi-particles with space and wave number coordinates, which enables a direct comparison with the phase space evolution of the electron bunch. Analytical results ar...

By scattering particles and causing dissipation, waves in a collisionless shock play a role similar to collisions in an ordinary gas. In describing the waves and instability that occur near a shock three regions must be considered: (1) the transition region, (2) the upstream region, and (3) the downstream region. The transition region is usually characterized by an abrupt broadband burst of ele...

The propagation of holes, solitons, and rarefaction waves along the axis of a magnetized pure electron plasma column is described. The time dependence of the radially averaged density perturbation produced by the nonlinear waves is measured at several locations along the plasma column for a wide ,range of plasma parameters. The rarefaction waves are studied by measuring the free expansion of th...

In this article, we use the general theory derived in Paper I [M. Tacu and D. Bénisti, Phys. Plasmas 29, 052108 (2022)] order to address several long-standing issues regarding nonlinear electron plasma waves (EPWs). First, discuss relevance practical usefulness of stationary solutions Vlasov–Poisson system, so-called Bernstein–Greene–Kruskal modes, model slowly varying waves. Second, derive an ...

We are studying the feasibility of using relativistically moving plasma waves as short wavelength undulators for possible FEL and Compton scattering applications at UCLA. The remarkable property of such waves is that the wiggler parameter aw eA/mc2 can be on the order 0.1 while their wavelength w can be submillimeter. Such waves can be excited by either an intense electron bunch going through a...