Plasma compensation effects with relativistic electron beams

It is noted that a sufficiently dense plasma can neutralize the current of a high-energy lepton beam propagating through it. An e/sup +/-e/sup -/ linear collider design with this plasma compensation has been studied and it was found that high luminosities can be obtained without going to the nanometer beam sizes being discussed. The consequence of compensation on B-factory design has also been studied. In particular, the eased constraints on spot size and magnet alignment in the case of a linear collider, and the reduction in beam-beam tune shift for a B-factory are noted. One severe limitation on such a plasma-based device which has not been thoroughly examined is the background due to the interaction of the high-energy beams with the plasma ion nuclei.<
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