Paper detail

Wake excited in plasma by an ultra-relativistic point-like bunch

A plasma flow behind a relativistic electron bunch propagating through a cold plasma is found assuming that the transverse and longitudinal dimensions of the bunch are small and the bunch can be treated as a point charge. In addition, the bunch charge is assumed small. A simplified system of equations for the plasma electrons is derived and it is shown that, through a simple rescaling of variables, the bunch charge can be eliminated from the equations. These equations have a unique solution, with an ion cavity formed behind the driver. The equations are solved numerically and the scaling of the cavity dimensions with the driver charge is obtained. A numerical solution for the case of a positively charged driver is also found.