  A modified version of the Plasma Beat-Wave Accelerator scheme is introduced
and analyzed, which is based on autoresonant phase-locking of the nonlinear
Langmuir wave to the slowly chirped beat frequency of the driving lasers via
adiabatic passage through resonance. This new scheme is designed to overcome
some of the well-known limitations of previous approaches, namely relativistic
detuning and nonlinear modulation or other non-uniformity or non-stationarity
in the driven Langmuir wave amplitude, and sensitivity to frequency mismatch
due to measurement uncertainties and density fluctuations and inhomogeneities.
