We present a new concept for a plasma wakefield accelerator driven by magnetowaves (MPWA). This concept was originally proposed as a viable mechanism for the 'cosmic accelerator' that would accelerate cosmic particles to ultra-high energies in the astrophysical setting. Unlike the more familiar plasma wakefield accelerator (PWFA) and the laser wakefield accelerator (LWFA) where the drivers, the charged-particle beam and the laser, are independently existing entities, MPWA invokes the high-frequency and high-speed whistler mode as the driver, which is a medium wave that cannot exist outside of the plasma. Aside from the difference in drivers, the underlying mechanism that excites the plasma wakefield via the ponderomotive potential is common. Our computer simulations show that under appropriate conditions, the plasma wakefield maintains very high coherence and can sustain high-gradient acceleration over many plasma wavelengths. We suggest that in addition to its celestial application, the MPWA concept can also be of terrestrial utility. A proof-of-principle experiment on MPWA would benefit both terrestrial and celestial accelerator concepts.
我提出了一种由磁波驱动的等离子体尾场加速器（MPWA）的新概念。该概念最初被提出作为一种可行的机制，用于“宇宙加速器”，即在天体物理环境中将宇宙粒子加速至超高能量。与更为人熟知的等离子体尾场加速器（PWFA）和激光尾场加速器（LWFA）不同——后两者的驱动源（带电粒子束和激光）是独立存在的外部实体——MPWA采用高频、高速的哨声模作为驱动源，而哨声模是一种无法在等离子体之外存在的介质波。除了驱动源的不同之外，其通过有质动力势激发等离子体尾场的基本机制是相同的。我们的计算机模拟表明，在适当条件下，等离子体尾场能够保持很高的相干性，并可在多个等离子体波长范围内维持高梯度加速。我们认为，除了天体物理应用之外，MPWA概念在地面应用中同样具有实用价值。针对MPWA的原理验证实验将同时有益于地面和天体物理加速器概念的发展。