This report presents the conceptual design of a new European research infrastructure EuPRAXIA. The concept has been established over the last four years in a unique collaboration of 41 laboratories within a Horizon 2020 design study funded by the European Union. EuPRAXIA is the first European project that develops a dedicated particle accelerator research infrastructure based on novel plasma acceleration concepts and laser technology. It focuses on the development of electron accelerators and underlying technologies, their user communities, and the exploitation of existing accelerator infrastructures in Europe. EuPRAXIA has involved, amongst others, the international laser community and industry to build links and bridges with accelerator science — through realising synergies, identifying disruptive ideas, innovating, and fostering knowledge exchange. The Eu-PRAXIA project aims at the construction of an innovative electron accelerator using laser- and electron-beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration that offers a significant reduction in size and possible savings in cost over current state-of-the-art radiofrequency-based accelerators. The foreseen electron energy range of one to five gigaelectronvolts (GeV) and its performance goals will enable versatile applications in various domains, e.g. as a compact free-electron laser (FEL), compact sources for medical imaging and positron generation, table-top test beams for particle detectors, as well as deeply penetrating X-ray and gamma-ray sources for material testing. EuPRAXIA is designed to be the required stepping stone to possible future plasma-based facilities, such as linear colliders at the high-energy physics (HEP) energy frontier. Consistent with a high-confidence approach, the project includes measures to retire risk by establishing scaled technology demonstrators. This report includes preliminary models for project implementation, cost and schedule that would allow operation of the full Eu-PRAXIA facility within 8—10 years.

High-energy-density electron-positron pairs play an increasingly important role in many potential applications. Here, we propose a scheme for enhanced positron production by an ultra intense laser irradiating a gas-Al compound target via the multi-photon Breit-Wheeler (BW) process. The laser pulse first ionizes the gas and interacts with a near-critical-density plasma, forming an electron bubble behind the laser pulse. A great deal of electrons are trapped and accelerated in the bubble, while the laser front hole-bores the Al target and deforms its front surface. A part of the laser wave is thus reflected by the inner curved target surface and collides with the accelerated electron bunch. Finally, a large number of γ photons are emitted in the forward direction via the Compton back-scattering process and the BW process is initiated. Dense electron-positron pairs are produced with a maximum density of × 6.02 10 27 m −3 . Simulation results show that the positron generation is greatly enhanced in the compound target, where the positron yield is two orders of magnitude greater than that in only the solid slab case. The influences of the laser intensity, gas density and length on the positron beam quality are also discussed, which demonstrates the feasibility of the scheme in practice.

Abstract-Effects on the communication signals caused by the time-varying plasma sheath surrounding hypersonic vehicles are investigated.Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique, Demetriades's plasma turbulence model and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm, amplitude variation and phase fluctuation induced by plasma electron density turbulence are obtained, and their statistical properties are analyzed and characterized. Furthermore, a finite-state Markov channel (FSMC) model is proposed, to represent the dynamical effects on electromagnetic wave propagation through plasma sheath. With high accuracy and greatly reduced complexity, the FMSC model could be very useful to develop novel communication techniques for alleviating the radio blackout problem.

Tailored plasma-density profiles for enhanced energy extraction in passive plasma beam dumps. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion.