Trapping, thermal effects, and wave breaking in the nonlinear plasma wake-field accelerator

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Abstract
In this paper we discuss a variety of physical aspects of the nonlinear regime of the plasma wake-field accelerator: general nonlinear properties, thermal effects, particle trapping, and maximum acceleration. The unifying motivation for this investigation is to discover the limit on the size of the plasma waves, as the interesting characteristics of the nonlinear scheme depend strongly on amplitude. Implications for laboratory and cosmic-ray acceleration are discussed.