Advanced Topics in Accelerator Physics

This class is aimed at students specializing in particle accelerator physics or related subjects. In Fall 26-27, we will discuss beam and laser-driven plasma acceleration. We will derive the plasma wakefield response to driving beam and laser pulses in the linear and nonlinear regimes. We will introduce particle-in-cell codes for modeling wakefield accelerators. Finally, we will examine challenges for generating and accelerating high-quality beams in plasmas for light source and collider applications.