Self-consistent hamiltonian model of beam transport in a laser-driven plasma accelerator

Summary form only given. Starting from the two species (bulk and beam electron) Vlasov-Maxwell system, we develop a self-consistent Hamiltonian model of beam transport in a background plasma where the beam is described by phase-space moments. The formalism used, based on the Hamiltonian structure of the Vlasov-Maxwell system, is a direct extension of that previously used to derive our warm fluid model. The bulk plasma model is independent of the moment model for the beam; in practice we find that a fluid description of the bulk plasma is appropriate. We present a detailed study of beam propagation in a resonant laser-wakefield accelerator. We discuss optimization of the system with regard to energy gain and beam quality. We comment on the implications for GeV-class accelerator stages