Luminosity Limitations of Linear Colliders Based on Plasma Acceleration

Particle acceleration in plasma creates a possibility of exceptionally high accelerating gradients and appears to be a very attractive option for future linear electron–positron and/or γ–γ colliders. These high accelerating gradients have already been demonstrated in a number of experiments. However, a linear collider requires exceptionally high beam brightness which still needs to be demonstrated. In this article we discuss major phenomena which limit the beam brightness of accelerated beam and, consequently, the collider luminosity.