- Accepted Paper
First observation of dispersive shock waves in an electron beam
Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams - Accepted 16 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2hhy-jfcd
Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams - Accepted 16 October, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2hhy-jfcd
Dispersive shock waves (DSWs) are expanding nonlinear wave trains that arise when dispersion regularizes a steepening front, a phenomenon observed in fluids, plasmas, optics, and superfluids. Here we report the first experimental observation of DSWs in an intense electron beam, using the University of Maryland Electron Ring (UMER). A localized induction-cell perturbation produced a negative density pulse that evolved into a leading soliton-like peak followed by an expanding train of oscillations. The leading peak satisfied soliton scaling laws for vs inverse amplitude and velocity vs amplitude, while the total wave-train width increased linearly with time, consistent with Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) predictions. Successive peaks showed decreasing amplitude and velocity toward the trailing edge, in agreement with dispersive shock ordering. These results demonstrate that intense charged particle beams provide a new laboratory platform for studying dispersive hydrodynamics, extending nonlinear wave physics into the high-intensity beam regime.
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