Achieving high-gradient acceleration is critical to enabling future linear colliders, free-electron lasers, and other compact accelerator applications. The Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) group has pioneered short-pulse structure wakefield acceleration technology, which has shown remarkable promise for surpassing the long-standing barrier of ~100 MV/m in X-band normal-conducting structures. Recent experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of this approach, with gradients exceeding 300 MV/m in a variety of X-band accelerating structures and an X-band photogun. Experimental results indicate that the empirical scaling law used to estimate the RF breakdown rate (BDR ~ E^30 * t^5) may be too conservative for RF pulse durations below 10 ns. Potential advanced accelerator designs based on short-pulse acceleration will also be presented, including a conceptual design for an ultra-compact XFEL.

This work examines the dominant coherent head-tail type (< x-z >) instabilities in the vertical plane of the FCC-ee collider, focusing on a mode analysis method with the Circulant Matrix Model (CMM) to assess instability mechanisms under the influence of beam-beam effects and transverse wakefields. While the impact of vertical plane instabilities have been already studied, different mechanisms are prominent in the horizontal plane. Understanding these mechanisms is crucial to identifying a stable working point at the Z energy. This study aims to advance the stability analysis and optimisation of FCC-ee at Z energy by investigating horizontal plane dynamics. Our findings indicate that mitigation strategies effective for vertical plane instabilities may not be sufficient and need to be adapted in order to ensure overall beam stability.

The influence of longitudinal wakefields on the beam dynamics in electron-positron colliders, particularly their role in beam instabilities such as Transverse Mode Coupling Instability (TMCI) and other transverse-longitudinal effects, necessitates a robust approach to accurately model these effects. This work focuses on the implementation of wakefield effects in the Circulant Matrix Model (CMM), a linear model that can facilitate the representation of these instabilities. We study the impact of potential well distortion and synchrotron frequency shifts due to longitudinal wakefields for FCC-ee and implement these effects in the CMM. The implementation is benchmarked against reference multiparticle tracking simulations to validate its accuracy in predicting longitudinal wakefield-driven instabilities. Results enable further studies featuring longitudinal wakefields for collider designs and operating machines.

The EuXFEL R&D project, STERN, aims to provide X-ray users with an accelerator-based THz source synchronized with the X-ray repetition rate. The main proposed THz generation method consists of electron beam wakefield excitation in Cherenkov waveguides. This work focuses on the design of a copper block that holds an array of waveguides to cover the radiation spectrum spanning from 300 GHz to 30 THz. These will include a variety of lengths and dielectric layer thicknesses to vary the spectral contents of the excited TM modes. Additionally, driving the wakefield generation process with an off-axis electron beam causes the excitation of HE modes, which are of great interest to the user community and add to the spectral content of the THz pulse. To further increase pulse energy, the implementation of radiation incouplers is analyzed, demonstrating the potential for capturing the electron beams self-field completely. Such wakefield structures offer a novel option for delivering versatile THz sources tailored to next-generation pump-probe experiments.

Structure-based wakefield acceleration, using dielectric-lined or corrugated waveguides, is a novel acceleration method currently being explored by several research groups globally. This technology facilitates the transfer of energy from a high-charge drive beam to a lower-charge main bunch with high accelerating gradients. In this study, we propose an energy booster for the Compact Linear Accelerator for Research and Applications (CLARA) at Daresbury Laboratory, utilising dielectric wakefield acceleration (DWA). Our simulation study optimises the drive beam and structure to achieve maximal energy efficiency across varying main beam energies, enabling the delivery of a main beam with adjustable charge and final energy. Additionally, we have considered the stability of both the accelerated and drive beams, selecting the geometry and layout of accelerating structures to maximise accelerated beam quality and mitigate the development of beam breakup instability in the drive beam

The AWAKE experiment at CERN makes use of a self-modulated proton bunch to excite wakefields and accelerate a witness electron bunch. Run 2c of the experiment will demonstrate stabilization of the wakefield amplitude and control of the witness bunch emittance during injection and acceleration. In this work, we present an overview of the ongoing simulation efforts to support the project as it moves towards controlled acceleration and first particle-physics applications.

We report on recent progress in transverse instabilities and transverse tolerances for plasma-wakefield accelerators in the blow-out regime. In this regime, the transverse fields provide both strong focusing and strong deflection via transverse wakefields. The deflection effect of the wakefields on the main beam leads to limitations on the acceleration efficiency, if not mitigated. Based on comprehensive particle-in-cell simulations we summarize recent findings of the instability--efficiency relation for the blow-out regime. Ion motion and energy spread may mitigate the instability; with linac start-to-end simulations, using the recently developed ABEL framework, we demonstrate that the instability and emittance growth may be sufficiently mitigated for the colliding beams in the HALHF concept. Independent of wakefield effects, the strong focusing fields lead to very tight tolerances for the drive-beam jitter. We quantify these tolerances, using examples from HALHF start-to-end simulations. We show that the tolerances are greatly loosened by applying external magnetic fields to guide the drive-beam propagation in the plasma.

Novel acceleration schemes aim to address the need for higher acceleration gradients which enable to minimise the size and costs of particle accelerators. One of these novel accelerator schemes is the dielectric wakefield acceleration (DWA), where an electron bunch is accelerated by the longitudinal wakefields generated within a dielectric lined waveguide by a leading drive bunch with higher charge. The advantages of this novel acceleration method include high accelerating field strength, the simplicity of its structure and the stability of the wakefield generated which is synchronous with the electron bunch. However, the drive bunch propagation length, and hence the achievable energy gain, is limited by the effect of the transverse wakefields. These fields deflect the bunch towards the dielectric, leading to charge losses, a phenomenon commonly referred to as beam break-up (BBU) instability. This study uses simulations to investigate the transverse wakefields and their impact on the beam dynamics in a DWA scheme with drive and witness (main) bunches. The findings will be further explored experimentally at the CLARA facility in Daresbury Laboratory.

The elliptical in-vacuum undulator (IVU) IVUE32 is being developed at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB). The APPLE-II design allows for not only gap changes but also longitudinal shift movements, putting additional design challenges on the tapers at the entrance and exit of the undulator. The chosen design philosophy separates the gap and shift movement compensation into two assemblies respectively. This approach allows for a solid foil taper as gap movement compensation, which is proven in previously commissioned planar IVUs e.g. CPMU17 at HZB. The shift movement compensation, which requires a slit foil, can be kept parallel. The proximity of this complex structure to the electron beam makes the device susceptible to wakefield effects which can influence beam stability. Investigating and understanding these effects is vital for accelerator operation. The taper design will be presented alongside wakefield simulations and model measurements.

The determination of electromagnetic wakefields and their impact on accelerator performance is a longstanding challenge in accelerator physics. These wakefields, induced by the interaction between a charged particle beam and the surrounding vacuum chamber structures, significantly affect beam stability and power dissipation. Accurate characterization of these effects via beam-coupling impedance is crucial for predicting and mitigating performance limitations. While analytical methods are sufficient for simple geometries, realistic accelerator components require full-wave, three-dimensional numerical solutions of Maxwell's equations. In alignment with CERN's Open Science initiative, this contribution introduces an open-source 3D electromagnetic time-domain solver specifically designed for computing wake potentials and impedances in arbitrary geometries. The solver’s numerical implementation, optimized for CUDA-enabled GPUs, is presented and validated through benchmarks against established commercial codes. By fostering a collaborative framework, this solver aspires to address emerging challenges in accelerator design.

Coherent Synchrotron Radiation (CSR) plays a critical role in beam dynamics, significantly influencing beam shape and energy characteristics in particle accelerators. This study investigates the CSR effect through a comprehensive numerical approach, starting from the fundamental Lienard-Wiechert equation and utilizing an explicit, non-approximated methodology to explore beam energy dynamics. This paper focuses on simulating CSR effects in conjunction with the shielding effect from parallel plates, which are crucial in mitigating potential beam energy loss.* By benchmarking results against Saldin's established work **, the study examines wakefield characteristics, particularly the high-peak behavior at small particle separations.

The PF Hybrid Light Source (PF-HLS) has been proposed in the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), capable of utilizing both high-quality beams from a superconducting linac and beams from a low-emittance storage ring. The coupling impedance will cause beam instability, which must be carefully handled. It is essential to benchmark impedance models using analytical methods and different simulation codes. This paper focuses on the impedance benchmarking of resistive wall and tapered transitions in PF-HLS. The regular round chamber (radius of 12 mm), insertion device (ID) chamber (half-height of 4 mm), and the corresponding tapered transitions are studied. Simulation codes, including ImpedanceWake2D (IW2D), CST, and Azimuthal Beam Cavity Interaction (ABCI), are used. For resistive wall calculations, some analytical formulae describing the round chamber impedance and the Yokoya form factors of the ID chamber are applied. For tapered transitions, some formulae calculating the impedance at low-frequency regions (inductive regime) are chosen to compare with results from CST. In high-frequency regions, the impedance result comparison between CST and ABCI is carried out.

The goal of the ASTERIX project, proposed at INFN-LNF and funded by the CSN5, is the first-time demonstration of a practical, meter-long X-band RF structure for real linear accelerators made of hard copper and four quadrants. Our joining technique will be the TIG welding for the prototype. During the feasibility study, in the first year, we will proceed to the RF cavity design of two full structures (~ 1m long and ~100 cells), one with optimized geometry for single-bunch and the other one for multi-bunch operation. We will perform the RF design optimization, including thermo-mechanical analysis, of the multi-cell TW cavity and the RF mode-launcher (which will be integrated with the cavity in the most compact way possible) for both structures’ geometries. In this paper, we show the preliminary characterization of the higher-order modes (HOMs) and wake-fields, which are detrimental for the particle beam with high-quality parameters typically accelerated in such structures, in the case of single-bunch operation. The electromagnetic designs will be performed by using the 3D numerical codes Ansys-HFSS and CST-Microwave Studio.