AWAKE: Proton-Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment at CERN - Postdoc at Manchester U.

You will join in the Accelerator Physics Group in the University of Manchester’s School of Physics and Astronomy and be based at the Cockcroft Institute on the Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus or University of Manchester. As part of the Cockcroft Institute you will be working alongside around 100 accelerator scientists and engineers; the post offers the opportunity to be part of a vibrant research institute, which is collaborating on a number of international projects, and you will have the opportunity to influence our future direction.

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Accelerator Physics:
AWAKE: Proton-Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment at CERN

Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PDPWA) has been recently proposed as a means to bring a bunch of electrons to the energy frontier (TeV) in a single stage of acceleration. The idea is to couple the huge amount of energies stored at the current proton synchrotron to an externally injected witness beam (electrons) through the plasma. Particle-in-cell simulation shows that a 1 TeV LHC-like proton bunch can excite a high amplitude plasma wakefield and accelerate a bunch of electrons to 600 GeV in a single stage through a 500 meter plasma cell.

The AWAKE project at CERN will investigate the feasibility of this novel proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration, study the self-modulated beam driven wakefield and the external injection and electron beam trapping and acceleration, and the possible collider design based on this scheme. This will significantly impact the future collider design for high energy and particle physics research.

University of Manchester and the Cockcroft Institute are giving significant contributions to the AWAKE project including the design, build and commissioning of electron accelerator and electron diagnostics for the AWAKE electron injector. The successful post-holder will help set up the pepper-pot system and the quadrupole scan for the emittance measurement, commission the electron beam and join in the data taking and data analysis for the AWAKE experiment. In addition, the post-holder will study the self-modulated proton beam driven wakefield formation and design the future colliders based on PDPWA scheme. She or he will perform the particle-in-cell simulations on beam-plasma interactions. The successful applicant will be a key part of the project team and will work closely with other team members and collaborators in the UK and internationally.

The post is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Cockcroft Institute for initially two years.

You should have a PhD on plasma physics or accelerator physics, ideally with a background in particle-in-cell plasma simulation and beam dynamics simulation, and be familiar with commonly used simulation tools in beam optics (GPT, ASTRA, MADX, ELEGANT, etc.) and plasmas (PIC codes like VSim, EPOCH or OSIRIS). You should be capable of independent work in an international environment. The post may include the possibility of postgraduate student supervision and teaching.

The School of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Manchester is one of the largest and most active schools of physics in the United Kingdom. The Cockcroft Institute is the largest center for accelerator science in the UK, and is based in pleasant surroundings just south of Warrington, between Liverpool and Manchester in North-West England. Further details can be obtained from our web sites:

http://www.physics.manchester.ac.uk/
http://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/

Deadline for application is 22nd May 2016.

Informal enquiries about this post can be made to Dr. Guoxing Xia (email: guoxing.xia@manchester.ac.uk)