AWAKE discharge plasma source diagram

A design of the plasma wakefield which is a type of wave generated by particles travelling through a plasma. AWAKE is all set to begin its second phase of data taking on 31 July – with a brand-new plasma source. While various future collider proposals aim to increase the size of an accelerator to increase the energy of the particles, AWAKE would help to figure out the opposite: how to shrink the size of a particle accelerator while still achieving higher energies, using a new way of accelerating particles. The recently tested discharge plasma source is a potential candidate for AWAKE’s operation after CERN’s third long shutdown (LS3). AWAKE is an R&D accelerator project at CERN, that uses plasma wakefield acceleration to accelerate particles.