No abstract

We report on the observation of incoherent Cherenkov radiation emitted by a 5.3 GeV positron beam circulating in the Cornell electron-positron storage ring as the beam passes in the close vicinity of the surface of a fused silica radiator (i.e., at a distance larger than 0.8 mm). The shape of the radiator was designed in order to send the Cherenkov photons towards the detector, consisting of a compact optical system equipped with an intensified camera. The optical system allows both the measurements of 2D images and angular distribution including polarization study. The corresponding light intensity has been measured as a function of the distance between the beam and the surface of the radiator and has shown a good agreement with theoretical predictions. For highly relativistic particles, a large amount of incoherent radiation is produced in a wide spectral range. A light yield of 0.8×10^{-3} photon per particle per turn has been measured at a wavelength of 600±10  nm in a 2 cm long radiator and for an impact parameter of 1 mm. This will find applications in accelerators as noninvasive beam diagnostics for both leptons and hadrons.

No abstract

In 2017, AWAKE demonstrated the seeded self-modulation (SSM) of a 400 GeV proton beam from the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN. The angular distribution of the protons deflected due to SSM is a quantitative measure of the process, which agrees with simulations by the two-dimensional (axisymmetric) particle-in-cell code LCODE to about 5%. The agreement is achieved in beam population scans at two selected plasma densities and in the scan of longitudinal plasma density gradient. The agreement is reached only in the case of a wide enough simulation box (several plasma wavelengths) that is closer to experimental conditions, but requires more computational power. Therefore, particle-in-cell codes can be used to interpret the SSM physics underlying the experimental data.

No abstract