Acceleration of heavy ions and muons by wakefields driven by non-relativistic short pulse proton beams

We investigate the possibility of generating non-relativistic wakefields with mono-energetic proton beams in both magnetized and un-magnetized plasma. The generation of short pulse mono-energetic proton beams in the energy range 1-10MeV has been demonstrated theoretically and experimentally in intense short pulse laser driven shock waves. This has led to the idea of using these non-relativistic proton beams to generate plasma waves and wakefields in plasma to provide a fast, compact and controllable acceleration of sub-relativistic heavy ions and muons. Relativistic proton beams have been demonstrated to self-modulate generating relativistic electron plasma waves that produce relativistic electrons. Non-relativistic proton beams propagating across magnetic fields generate lower hybrid waves through the modified two stream instability and commonly invoked to explain ion heating and electron acceleration in collisionless magnetized shock waves. With short intense proton beams, where the pulse length is comparable to the electron skin depth, there is the possibility of generating non-relativistic electrostatic wakes that can accelerate heavy ions or muons. We will present theory and simulations.