BEAMS
In the literature: open
Can electron lenses compensate space charge in hadron rings
In plain words
A low-energy electron beam overlapping the proton beam can partly cancel the protons' mutual repulsion; whether this raises the usable intensity in practice is unknown.
Precise statement
An electron lens with charge density matched to the hadron beam cancels part of the space-charge defocusing at its location. Determine whether $N_{e}$ lenses distributed around a ring raise the tolerable intensity by a factor above 1.5 at fixed loss, accounting for breaking of lattice periodicity by finite $N_{e}$, coherent electron-proton instabilities, and lens current noise, with proton tests at the Fermilab IOTA ring as the reference case.
What would settle it
A ring experiment showing increased intensity at fixed loss with lenses on versus off, consistent with simulation.