Past exam of the short options paper shared by Prelims and Parts A and B of the physics course of the University of Oxford / 2016 / S19 / 3 / d / Solution

For a 1 micrometre laser, $n_c\simeq 1.1\times 10^{27}$ m${}^{-3}$ and a cold underdense wave has ${\gamma }_{\varphi }^2\simeq n_c/n_e$. At peak wave scale $E_0$, optimal passage through an accelerating half-cycle gives ideal stage gain $\Delta \mathcal{E}\sim 4(n_c/n_e)m_e{c}^2$; crest-to-zero injection gives half that. With the illustrative $n_e\simeq 7\times 10^{22}$ m${}^{-3}$, the optimal ideal gain is about 32 GeV and a 9.9 TeV increment needs order 300 stages, or order 600 with the crest convention.

TODO — no unique stage count follows without the missing density and laser/wake amplitude assumptions. Depletion, diffraction, guiding, beam loading, injection, energy spread, driver evolution and interstage losses can all increase or otherwise alter the requirement. The parametric count is $N\gtrsim \Delta {\mathcal{E}}_{\mathrm{total}}/[4\eta (n_c/n_e)m_e{c}^2]$, with the phase and field conventions explicitly retained.