Plasma wakefield acceleration for particle physics

The project I apply for is concerned with accelerator physics research for future linear colliders for high-energy particle physics, to be performed as visiting scientist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre, SLAC, California. The visit will be a co ntinuation of my research stay, base-funded by a personal post.doc. grant from the Research Council of Norway for the period 1/2012 - 12/2013 (Project nr. 213465). The research suggested, "Plasma wakefield acceleration for particle physics", is part of t he field of particle accelerator physics. Conventional microwave acceleration in vacuum impose limitations on the accelerating gradient, implying very long length and high cost for lepton colliders needed for high-energy physics research. Various advan ced approaches have been proposed to overcome these limitations and thus extend the energy reach of lepton colliders to the TeV-scale and beyond. My plan is to complete the research stay, in the period 1/2013 to 12/2013, at the world-class Accelerato r Research Division at SLAC, where highly promising experiments in the field of plasma wakefield acceleration have started in 2012 and will continue in 2013.