Hosing instability in the blow-out regime for plasma-wakefield acceleration

The electron hosing instability in the blow-out regime of plasma-wakefield acceleration is investigated using a linear perturbation theory about the electron blow-out trajectory in Lu et al. [in Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 165002 (2006)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.96.165002]. The growth of the instability is found to be affected by the beam parameters unlike in the standard theory Whittum et al. which is strictly valid for preformed channels. Particle-in-cell simulations agree with this new theory, which predicts less hosing growth than found by the hosing theory of Whittum et al.