Particle acceleration by collective effects

Successful acceleration of protons and other ions has been achieved experimentally in this decade by a number of different collective methods. The attainment of very high accelerating fields has been established although so far the acceleration distance has been confined to only a few centimeters. Efforts are in progress to understand the accelerating mechanisms in detail and, as a result, to devise ways of extending considerably the acceleration distance. A review is given of the current progress, expectations, and limitations of the different approaches.