Modeling of three-dimensional betatron oscillation and radiation reaction in plasma accelerators

Abstract

Betatron oscillation is a commonly known phenomenon in laser or beam driven plasma wakefield accelerators. In the conventional model, the plasma wake provides a linear focusing force to a relativistic electron, and the electron oscillates in one transverse direction with the betatron frequency proportional to $1/\sqrt{\gamma}$, where $\gamma$ is the Lorentz factor of the electron. In this work, we extend this model to three-dimensional by considering the oscillation in two transverse and one longitudinal directions. The long-term equations, with motion in the betatron time scale averaged out, are obtained and compared with the original equations by numerical methods. In addition to the longitudinal and transverse damping due to radiation reaction which has been found before, we show phenomena including the longitudinal phase drift, betatron phase shift and betatron polarization change based on our long-term equations. This work can be highly valuable for future plasma based high-energy accelerators and colliders.