This proposal is one of two linked proposals from a collaboration of Stanford, UCLA, USC, and SLAC to fund a Center, called the ORION Center, devoted to advanced accelerator and beam physics research. Together they include performing a wide range of pioneering experiments, building a shared, user-oriented facility, and developing and using supercomputing expertise and resources that are equivalent to experimental facilities. The physics will be diverse, including high energy-density plasma physics, beam physics of ultra-short pulse electron sources, direct laser acceleration, x-ray generation via beam-plasma interactions, and simulation and visualization integrated with experiments.
Intellectual Merit
The foundation of the ORION Center will be specialized accelerators and infrastructure at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) that will be available to the Center. Research will begin with experiments at the Final Focus Test Beam (FFTB), which is an extensively instrumented beamline at the end of the SLAC main linac that can deliver 30 GeV electron and positron beams. It is an exceptional facility for experiments in non-linear positron/matter and electron/matter interactions. Understanding these interactions is crucial for plasma based high-energy colliders, and these experiments are an integral part of the ORION Center.
In the longer term, experiments will be concentrated at the ORION Research Facility, which will be based on the Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator (NLCTA), an operating linac at SLAC capable of providing beams from 50 to 350 MeV. The ORION Facility will be user-oriented and open to experimenters studying all aspects of advanced accelerator science and technology.
Broader Impacts
Advanced accelerator research is attractive to young scientists because of the combination of forefront experimental, theoretical and computer-based research, state-of-the-art technologies, many opportunities for creativity, and the potential contributions to particle physics. For similar reasons, undergraduate and graduate research and education programs have proven quite attractive. The groups involved with this proposal have traditions of high-quality education as integral parts of their activities. The education outreach program will go beyond these traditional educational activities through partnerships with interested, local community colleges that involve their faculty and students and with a website describing ORION research projects.
