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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Axionic suppression of plasma wakefield acceleration
AU - Burton, David
AU - Noble, Adam
AU - Walton, Timothy
PY - 2016/8/26
Y1 - 2016/8/26
N2 - Contemporary attempts to explain the existence of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using plasma-based wakefield acceleration deliberately avoid non-Standard Model particle physics. However, such proposals exploit some of the most extreme environments in the Universe and it is conceivable that hypothetical particles outside the Standard Model have significant implications for the effectiveness of the acceleration process. Axions solve the strong CP problem and provide one of the most important candidates for Cold Dark Matter, and their potential significance in the present context should not be overlooked. Our analysis of the field equations describing a plasma augmented with axions uncovers a dramatic axion-induced suppression of the energy gained by a test particle in the wakefield driven by a particle bunch, or an intense pulse of electromagnetic radiation, propagating at ultra-relativistic speeds within the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe.
AB - Contemporary attempts to explain the existence of ultra-high energy cosmic rays using plasma-based wakefield acceleration deliberately avoid non-Standard Model particle physics. However, such proposals exploit some of the most extreme environments in the Universe and it is conceivable that hypothetical particles outside the Standard Model have significant implications for the effectiveness of the acceleration process. Axions solve the strong CP problem and provide one of the most important candidates for Cold Dark Matter, and their potential significance in the present context should not be overlooked. Our analysis of the field equations describing a plasma augmented with axions uncovers a dramatic axion-induced suppression of the energy gained by a test particle in the wakefield driven by a particle bunch, or an intense pulse of electromagnetic radiation, propagating at ultra-relativistic speeds within the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe.
U2 - 10.1088/1751-8113/49/38/385501
DO - 10.1088/1751-8113/49/38/385501
M3 - Journal article
VL - 49
JO - Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
JF - Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
SN - 1751-8113
M1 - 385501
ER -