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abstract:
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There has been much interest in the blowout regime of plasma wakefield acceleration
(PWFA), which features ultra-high fields and nonlinear plasma motion. Using an exact
analysis, we examine here a fundamental limit of nonlinear PWFA excitation, by an
infinitesimally short, relativistic electron beam. The beam energy loss in this case is shown
to be linear in charge even for nonlinear plasma response, where a normalized, unitless
charge exceeds unity. The physical basis for this effect is discussed, as are deviations from
linear behavior observed in simulations with finite length beams.
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