Theory and simulation activities for Plasma Acceleration at DESY

CASUS Institute Seminar, Maxence Thevenet, DESY
Location: CASUS Lecture Room, Görlitz

In recent years, DESY and the University of Hamburg (UHH) have developed into pioneer research centers for plasma acceleration — a promising technology that could make particle accelerators orders of magnitude more compact than today’s facilities. Reorganisation of these activities over the past two years resulted in the creation of the new group MPA (Machine Development for Plasma Accelerators) at DESY, gathering together plasma acceleration activities from UHH and DESY under one roof. The consolidation of these activities will optimise the sharing of common resources, such as theory and simulation efforts — now centralised in the sub-group MPA1. In this seminar we will present recent results in theory and simulations, and discuss the current HPC ecosystem in place, with emphasis on the reduced-model (HiPACE) and reduced-geometry (FBPIC), as well as general (WarpX, PIConGPU) particle-in-cell codes used and/or developed at DESY. We will discuss challenges for future plasma acceleration experiments, including the need for multi-physics modelling and long-term plasma evolution.