B. Cowan

Computational studies and optimization of wakefield accelerators

Laser- and particle beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerators produce accelerating fields thousands of times higher than radio-frequency accelerators, offering compactness and ultrafast bunches to extend the frontiers of high energy physics and to enable laboratory-scale radiation sources. Large-scale kinetic simulations provide essential understanding of accelerator physics to advance beam performance and stability and show and predict the physics behind recent demonstration of narrow energy spread bunches. Benchmarking between codes is establishing validity of the models used and, by testing new reduced models, is extending the reach of simulations to cover upcoming meter-scale multi-GeV experiments. This includes new models that exploit Lorentz boosted simulation frames to speed calculations. Simulations of experiments showed that recently demonstrated plasma gradient injection of electrons can be used as an injector to increase beam quality by orders of magnitude. Simulations are now also modeling accelerator stages of tens of GeV, staging of modules, and new positron sources to design next-generation experiments and to use in applications in high energy physics and light sources.

Recent results and future challenges for large scale Particle-In-Cell simulations of plasma-based accelerator concepts

The concept and designs of plasma-based advanced accelerators for high energy physics and photon science are modelled in the SciDAC COMPASS project with a suite of Particle-In-Cell codes and simulation techniques including the full electromagnetic model, the envelope model, the boosted frame approach and the quasi-static model. In this paper, we report the progress of the development of these models and techniques and present recent results achieved with large-scale parallel PIC simulations. The simulation needs for modelling the plasma-based advanced accelerator at the energy frontier is discussed and a path towards this goal is outlined.

Scaled simulations of a 10 GeV accelerator

Laser plasma accelerators are able to produce high quality electron beams from 1 MeV to 1 GeV. The next generation of plasma accelerator experiments will likely use a multi-stage approach where a high quality electron bunch is first produced and then injected into an accelerating structure. In this paper we present scaled particle-in-cell simulations of a 10 GeV stage in the quasi-linear regime. We show that physical parameters can be scaled to be able to perform these simulations at reasonable computational cost. Beam loading properties and electron bunch energy gain are calculated. A range of parameter regimes are studied to optimize the quality of the electron bunch at the output of the stage.

Benchmarking the codes VORPAL, OSIRIS, and QuickPIC with Laser Wakefield Acceleration Simulations

Three-dimensional laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) simulations have recently been performed to benchmark the commonly used particle-in-cell (PIC) codes VORPAL, OSIRIS, and QuickPIC. The simulations were run in parallel on over 100 processors, using parameters relevant to LWFA with ultra-short Ti-Sapphire laser pulses propagating in hydrogen gas. Both first-order and second-order particle shapes were employed. We present the results of this benchmarking exercise, and show that accelerating gradients from full PIC agree for all values of a0 and that full and reduced PIC agree well for values of a0 approaching 4.

Laser wakefield simulation using a speed‐of‐light frame envelope model

Simulation of laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) experiments is computationally intensive due to the disparate length scales involved. Current experiments extend hundreds of laser wavelengths transversely and many thousands in the propagation direction, making explicit PIC simulations enormously expensive and requiring massively parallel execution in 3D. We can substantially improve the performance of laser wakefield simulations by modeling the envelope modulation of the laser field rather than the field itself. This allows for much coarser grids, since we need only resolve the plasma wavelength and not the laser wavelength, and therefore larger timesteps. Thus an envelope model can result in savings of several orders of magnitude in computational resources. By propagating the laser envelope in a frame moving at the speed of light, dispersive errors can be avoided and simulations over long distances become possible. Here we describe the model and its implementation, and show simulations and benchmarking of laser wakefield phenomena such as channel propagation, self-focusing, wakefield generation, and downramp injection using the model.

PPPS-2013: Fast and accurate simulations of 10 GEV-scale laser plasma accelerators

Because of their ultra-high accelerating gradient, laser plasma based accelerators (LPA) are contemplated for the next generation of high energy colliders and light sources. The upcoming BELLA project will explore acceleration of electron bunches to 10 GeV in a meter long plasma, where a wakefield is driven by a PW-class laser. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are used to design the upcoming experiments. Simulations are challenging because of the disparity of length scale between the laser wavelength (~1 micron) that needs to be resolved and the simulation length (~ 1 m). We report on recent developments of the Laser Envelope Model, a reduced model for laser-plasma interactions that has previously demonstrated orders of magnitude speedup. In particular, we present the implementation of the model in cylindrical coordinates, allowing for quite rapid prototyping of laser acceleration stages. We discuss the performance benefits as well as the limitations and trade-offs of this model. In parallel, high frequency noise in PIC simulations makes it difficult to accurately represent beam energy spread and emittance. We show that calculating the beam self-fields using a static Poisson solve in the beam frame dramatically reduces particle noise, allowing for more accurate simulation of the beam evolution.