Fig. 1. Rendering of the (yellow and dark blue dots) drive electron beam and (red dots) trailing electron beam particles and the (light blue and green surfaces)
plasma electron density contour in a teraelectron-volt class “afterburner” simulation with 500-GeV drive/trailing beams. The drive beam expels the plasma
electrons, forming the spherical wake structure surrounding the beams, as seen in the figure. The energy of the driver is lost to the wake and then transferred to
the trailing beam. Color codes of the beam particles represent their energies, with blue being nearly 0 GeV and red being about 1 TeV. The head of the drive beam
feels the least amount of decelerating and focusing field; it remains yellow (representing 500 GeV) and diffracts, causing head erosion. A radial spatial filter has
been applied to remove the diffracted drive beam particles for better showing of the trailing beam.
Fig.