Interaction of Relativistic Particles and Free Electromagnetic Waves in the Presence of a Static Helical Magnet

Abstract

It is shown that a particle passing along the axis of a helical magnet (in which the field is perpendicular to the axis and rotating as a function of position along the magnet) can be continuously accelerated by its interaction with circularly polarized radiation passing in the same direction. An example is given in which an electron is accelerated to 10 GeV, using a laser of 1014 W. A second example shows how pions and kaons might be separated at momenta over 1000 GeV. It is further shown that bunched charged particles passing down the helical magnet will radiate coherent circularly polarized electromagnetic waves, and it is speculated that the required bunching may under some circumstances be self-generating. An example is shown in which a 10-A current of 15-MeV electrons is used to generate a 75-MW beam of 10-μ radiation.