EuPRAXIA is a design study on a “European plasma research accelerator with excellence in applications”. It aims at developing innovative plasma technology for compact and cost-efficient electron accelerators, enabling ground-breaking applications in photon science, high-energy physics, health and industry. The European research infrastructure EuPRAXIA would host compact plasma accelerators, modern lasers from European industry, and pilot user areas.
Over the last century, particle accelerators have become powerful and widely used tools for industry, medicine and science. Today there are more than 30,000 particle accelerators worldwide. All of them rely on highly developed technologies for increasing the energy of charged particles. However, the achievable particle energy is often limited by practical boundaries on size and cost, e.g. the available space in hospitals, the available funding in universities or the cost that society as a whole can afford for science projects at the energy frontier. A new type of accelerator that uses plasmas instead of the conventional radiofrequency (RF) cavities provides acceleration rates 1,000 times higher than those of conventional machines. This allows for much smaller accelerators with a wide range of applications.
EuPRAXIA brings together a consortium of 16 laboratories and universities from 5 EU member states. 25 associated partners from 13 countries in Europe, Asia and North America have also joined with in-kind commitments. The scientists represent expertise from accelerator science and high-energy physics, leading accelerators like the LHC, advanced acceleration test facilities like SPARC, and frontier laser projects like CLF, CILEX and ELI.
Based on this interdisciplinary collaboration and four years of hard work, the EuPRAXIA project has produced a conceptual design report for a new plasma-accelerator-based research facility. It describes innovative solutions that combine state-of-the-art accelerator technology, plasma expertise, modern lasers, industrial know-how and advanced feedback systems. The proposed design strategies improve the quality of plasma-accelerated electron beams, such that applications are enabled. Additionally, user areas have been developed for free-electron laser (FEL) studies, tabletop high-energy physics test beams, medical applications, industry tests and more. The design report also presents an implementation model as a distributed infrastructure with multiple sites and centres across Europe. Depending on funding, it is estimated that such a facility could be prepared and implemented within an 8-to-10-year timeframe.
