title: Warm wave breaking of nonlinear plasma waves with arbitrary phase velocities.
abstract: A warm, relativistic fluid theory of a nonequilibrium, collisionless plasma is developed to analyze nonlinear plasma waves excited by intense drive beams. The maximum amplitude and wavelength are calculated for nonrelativistic plasma temperatures and arbitrary plasma wave phase velocities. The maximum amplitude is shown to increase in the presence of a laser field. These results set a limit to the achievable gradient in plasma-based accelerators.
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Esarey
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Shadwick