A new method for calculating the Cherenkov wakefield acting on a point charged particle passing through a longitudinally homogeneous structure lined with layer(s) of an arbitrary retarding (dielectric, resistive, or corrugated) material has been developed. In this paper we present a rigorous derivation of the expressions for the fields that are valid at the cross section of the particle on the basis of a conformal mapping method. This new formalism allows reduction of the loss factor calculation to a simple derivation of a conformal mapping function from the arbitrary cross section onto a circular disc. We generalize these results to the case of a bunch with an arbitrary transverse distribution by deriving a two-dimensional Green function at the cross section of the particle. Consequently, for the first time analytical expressions for the transverse distributions of the electric field $E_z$ for the most commonly used cylindrical, planar and elliptical cross section geometries are found. The proposed approach significantly decreases simulation time and opens new possibilities in optimizing wakefield effects resulting from short charged particle bunches for FEL and Linear Collider applications.

We develop a general model of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) impedance with shielding provided by two parallel conducting plates. This model allows us to easily reproduce all previously known analytical CSR wakes and to expand the analysis to situations not explored before. It reduces calculations of the impedance to taking integrals along the trajectory of the beam. New analytical results are derived for the radiation impedance with shielding for the following orbits: a kink, a bending magnet, a wiggler of finite length, and an infinitely long wiggler. All our formulas are benchmarked against numerical simulations with the CSRZ computer code.

Corrugated structures have recently been widely used for manipulating electron beam longitudinal phase space and for producing THz radiation. Here we report on time-resolved measurements of the quadrupole wakefields in planar corrugated structures. It is shown that while the time-dependent quadrupole wakefield produced by a planar corrugated structure causes significant growth in beam transverse emittance, it can be effectively canceled with a second corrugated structure with orthogonal orientation. The strengths of the time-dependent quadrupole wakefields for various corrugated structure gaps are also measured and found to be in good agreement with theories. Our work should forward the applications of corrugated structures in many accelerator based scientific facilities.

A novel algorithm for self-consistent simulations of long-range wakefield effects has been developed and applied to the study of both longitudinal and transverse coupled-bunch instabilities at NSLS-II. The algorithm is implemented in the new parallel tracking code space (self-consistent parallel algorithm for collective effects) discussed in the paper. The code is applicable for accurate beam dynamics simulations in cases where both bunch-to-bunch and intrabunch motions need to be taken into account, such as chromatic head-tail effects on the coupled-bunch instability of a beam with a nonuniform filling pattern, or multibunch and single-bunch effects of a passive higher-harmonic cavity. The numerical simulations have been compared with analytical studies. For a beam with an arbitrary filling pattern, intensity-dependent complex frequency shifts have been derived starting from a system of coupled Vlasov equations. The analytical formulas and numerical simulations confirm that the analysis is reduced to the formulation of an eigenvalue problem based on the known formulas of the complex frequency shifts for the uniform filling pattern case.

An electron bunch circulating in a storage ring constitutes a dynamical system with both longitudinal and transverse degrees of freedom. Through a self-interaction with the wakefields created by the bunch, certain of these degrees may get excited, defining a set of eigenmodes analogous to a spectroscopic series. The present study focuses on the longitudinal modes of a single bunch. The excitation of a mode appears as an amplitude modulation at the mode frequency of the coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) emitted by the bunch. The modulations are superimposed on a much larger continuum from CSR emission in the continuous mode. A given eigenmode is classified by the integer $m$ which is the ratio of the mode frequency to the synchrotron frequency. The present measurements extend up to $m=8$ and focus on the region near the instability thresholds. At threshold the modes are excited sequentially, resembling a staircase when the mode frequencies are plotted as a function of bunch length or synchrotron frequency. Adjacent modes are observed to coexist at the boundaries between the modes. An energy-independent correlation is observed between the threshold current for an instability and the corresponding zero-current bunch length. Measurements were made at five beam energies between 1.0 and 2.9 GeV at the Canadian Light Source. The CSR was measured in the time domain using an unbiased Schottky diode spanning 50–75 GHz.

The parallel operation of plural undulator beam lines is an important means of improving the efficiency and usability of x-ray free-electron laser facilities. After the installation of a second undulator beam line (BL2) at SPring-8 Angstrom compact free-electron laser (SACLA), pulse-by-pulse switching between two beam lines was tested using kicker and dc twin-septum magnets. To maintain a compact size, all undulator beam lines at SACLA are designed to be placed within the same undulator hall located downstream of the accelerator. In order to ensure broad tunability of the laser wavelength, the electron bunches are accelerated to different beam energies optimized for the wavelengths of each beam line. In the demonstration, the 30 Hz electron beam was alternately deflected to two beam lines and simultaneous lasing was achieved with 15 Hz at each beam line. Since the electron beam was deflected twice by 3° in a dogleg to BL2, the coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) effects became non-negligible. Currently in a wavelength range of 4–10 keV, a laser pulse energy of $100–150\mu \mathrm{J}$ can be obtained with a reduced peak current of around 1 kA by alleviating the CSR effects. This paper reports the results and operational issues related to the multi-beam-line operation of SACLA.

Meson factories are powerful drivers of diverse physics programs. With beam powers already in the MW-regime attention has to be turned to target and beam line design to further significantly increase surface muon rates available for experiments. For this reason we have explored the possibility of using a neutron spallation target as a source of surface muons by performing detailed Geant4 simulations with pion production cross sections based on a parametrization of existing data. While the spallation target outperforms standard targets in the backward direction by more than a factor 7 it is not more efficient than standard targets viewed under 90°. Not surprisingly, the geometry of the target plays a large role in the generation of surface muons. Through careful optimization, a gain in surface muon rate of between 30% and 60% over the standard “box-like” target used at the Paul Scherrer Institute could be achieved by employing a rotated slab target. An additional 10% gain could also be possible by utilizing novel target materials such as, e.g., boron carbide.

In this paper, we present a new two particle model for studying the strong head-tail instabilities in the presence of the space-charge force. It is a simple expansion of the well-known two particle model for strong head-tail instability and is still analytically solvable. No chromaticity effect is included. It leads to a formula for the growth rate as a function of the two dimensionless parameters: the space-charge tune shift parameter (normalized by the synchrotron tune) and the wakefield strength, $\mathrm{\Upsilon }$. The three-dimensional contour plot of the growth rate as a function of those two dimensionless parameters reveals stopband structures. Many simulation results generally indicate that a strong head-tail instability can be damped by a weak space-charge force, but the beam becomes unstable again when the space-charge force is further increased. The new two particle model indicates a similar behavior. In weak space-charge regions, additional tune shifts by the space-charge force dissolve the mode coupling. As the space-charge force is increased, they conversely restore the mode coupling, but then a further increase of the space-charge force decouples the modes again. This mode coupling/decoupling behavior creates the stopband structures.

Accelerator applications like free-electron lasers, time-resolved electron diffraction, and advanced accelerator concepts like plasma acceleration desire bunches of ever shorter longitudinal extent. However, apart from space charge repulsion, the internal bunch structure and its development along the beam line can limit the achievable compression due to nonlinear phase space correlations. In order to improve such a limited longitudinal focus, a correction by properly linearizing the phase space is required. At large scale facilities like Flash at Desy or the European Xfel, a higher harmonic cavity is installed for this purpose. In this paper, another method is described and evaluated: Expanding the beam after the electron source enables a higher order correction of the longitudinal focus by a subsequent accelerating cavity which is operated at the same frequency as the electron gun. The elaboration of this idea presented here is based on a ballistic bunching scheme, but can be extended to bunch compression based on magnetic chicanes. The core of this article is an analytic model describing this approach, which is verified by simulations, predicting possible bunch length below 1 fs at low bunch charge. Minimizing the energy spread down to ${\sigma }_E/E<10^{-5}$ while keeping the bunch long is another interesting possibility, which finds applications, e.g., in time resolved transmission electron microscopy concepts.

Colliding bunch trains in a circular collider demands a certain crossing angle in order to separate the two beams transversely after the collision. The magnitude of this crossing angle is a complicated function of the bunch charge, the number of long-range beam-beam interactions, of ${\beta }^{*}$ and type of optics (flat or round), and possible compensation or additive effects between several low-$\beta$ insertions in the ring depending on the orientation of the crossing plane at each interaction point. About 15 years ago, the use of current bearing wires was proposed at CERN in order to mitigate the long-range beam-beam effects [J. P. Koutchouk, CERN Report No. LHC-Project-Note 223, 2000], therefore offering the possibility to minimize the crossing angle with all the beneficial effects this might have: on the luminosity performance by reducing the need for crab-cavities or lowering their voltage, on the required aperture of the final focus magnets, on the strength of the orbit corrector involved in the crossing bumps, and finally on the heat load and radiation dose deposited in the final focus quadrupoles. In this paper, a semianalytical approach is developed for the compensation of the long-range beam-beam interactions with current wires. This reveals the possibility of achieving optimal correction through a careful adjustment of the aspect ratio of the $\beta$ functions at the wire position. We consider the baseline luminosity upgrade plan of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC project), and compare it to alternative scenarios, or so-called “configurations,” where modifications are applied to optics, crossing angle, or orientation of the crossing plane in the two low-$\beta$ insertions of the ring. For all these configurations, the beneficial impact of beam-beam compensation devices is then demonstrated on the tune footprint, the dynamical aperture, and/or the frequency map analysis of the nonlinear beam dynamics as the main figures of merit.

We have developed conceptual designs of two petawatt-class pulsed-power accelerators: Z 300 and Z 800. The designs are based on an accelerator architecture that is founded on two concepts: single-stage electrical-pulse compression and impedance matching [Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 10, 030401 (2007)]. The prime power source of each machine consists of 90 linear-transformer-driver (LTD) modules. Each module comprises LTD cavities connected electrically in series, each of which is powered by 5-GW LTD bricks connected electrically in parallel. (A brick comprises a single switch and two capacitors in series.) Six water-insulated radial-transmission-line impedance transformers transport the power generated by the modules to a six-level vacuum-insulator stack. The stack serves as the accelerator’s water-vacuum interface. The stack is connected to six conical outer magnetically insulated vacuum transmission lines (MITLs), which are joined in parallel at a 10-cm radius by a triple-post-hole vacuum convolute. The convolute sums the electrical currents at the outputs of the six outer MITLs, and delivers the combined current to a single short inner MITL. The inner MITL transmits the combined current to the accelerator’s physics-package load. Z 300 is 35 m in diameter and stores 48 MJ of electrical energy in its LTD capacitors. The accelerator generates 320 TW of electrical power at the output of the LTD system, and delivers 48 MA in 154 ns to a magnetized-liner inertial-fusion (MagLIF) target [Phys. Plasmas 17, 056303 (2010)]. The peak electrical power at the MagLIF target is 870 TW, which is the highest power throughout the accelerator. Power amplification is accomplished by the centrally located vacuum section, which serves as an intermediate inductive-energy-storage device. The principal goal of Z 300 is to achieve thermonuclear ignition; i.e., a fusion yield that exceeds the energy transmitted by the accelerator to the liner. 2D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations suggest Z 300 will deliver 4.3 MJ to the liner, and achieve a yield on the order of 18 MJ. Z 800 is 52 m in diameter and stores 130 MJ. This accelerator generates 890 TW at the output of its LTD system, and delivers 65 MA in 113 ns to a MagLIF target. The peak electrical power at the MagLIF liner is 2500 TW. The principal goal of Z 800 is to achieve high-yield thermonuclear fusion; i.e., a yield that exceeds the energy initially stored by the accelerator’s capacitors. 2D MHD simulations suggest Z 800 will deliver 8.0 MJ to the liner, and achieve a yield on the order of 440 MJ. Z 300 and Z 800, or variations of these accelerators, will allow the international high-energy-density-physics community to conduct advanced inertial-confinement-fusion, radiation-physics, material-physics, and laboratory-astrophysics experiments over heretofore-inaccessible parameter regimes.

Synchrotron radiation produced as an electron beam passes through a bending magnet is a significant source of background in many experiments. Using modeling, we show that simple modifications of the magnet geometry can reduce this background by orders of magnitude in some circumstances. Specifically, we examine possible modifications of the four dipole magnets used in Jefferson Lab’s Hall A Compton polarimeter chicane. This Compton polarimeter has been a crucial part of experiments with polarized beams and the next generation of experiments will utilize increased beam energies, up to 11 GeV, requiring a corresponding increase in Compton dipole field to 1.5 T. In consequence, the synchrotron radiation (SR) from the dipole chicane will be greatly increased. Three possible modifications of the chicane dipoles are studied; each design moves about 2% of the integrated bending field to provide a gentle bend in critical regions along the beam trajectory which, in turn, greatly reduces the synchrotron radiation within the acceptance of the Compton polarimeter photon detector. Each of the modifications studied also softens the SR energy spectrum at the detector sufficiently to allow shielding with 5 mm of lead. Simulations show that these designs are each capable of reducing the background signal due to SR by three orders of magnitude. The three designs considered vary in their need for vacuum vessel changes and in their effectiveness.

Particle-in-cell (PIC) is the most used algorithm to perform self-consistent tracking of intense charged particle beams. It is based on depositing macroparticles on a grid, and subsequently solving on it the Poisson equation. It is well known that PIC algorithms occupy intrinsic limitations as they introduce numerical noise. Although not significant for short-term tracking, this becomes important in simulations for circular machines over millions of turns as it may induce artificial diffusion of the beam. In this work, we present a modeling of numerical noise induced by PIC algorithms, and discuss its influence on particle dynamics. The combined effect of particle tracking and noise created by PIC algorithms leads to correlated or decorrelated numerical noise. For decorrelated numerical noise we derive a scaling law for the simulation parameters, allowing an estimate of artificial emittance growth. Lastly, the effect of correlated numerical noise is discussed, and a mitigation strategy is proposed.

X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) are innovative research tools able to produce high-power and short radiation pulses for multiple scientific applications. We present a new method to produce XFEL radiation with much higher power and shorter pulse lengths than the ones obtained at standard XFEL facilities. This will enable new kinds of experiments in scientific fields such as nonlinear optics and bioimaging. The scheme is based on introducing a transverse tilt to the electron beam, thus limiting the fraction of the bunch able to produce XFEL radiation. In the first part of the undulator beam line only the tail of the electron bunch lases. Then, by properly delaying and correcting the trajectory of the electron beam between some undulator modules, all the electrons can contribute to the amplification of a very short XFEL pulse. Apart from being efficient, our method is flexible since by tuning the tilt amplitude one can obtain shorter or more energetic XFEL pulses. The scheme can readily be applied since, besides the standard components of an XFEL facility, it only needs small chicanes between certain undulator modules. We have confirmed the validity of our proposal with numerical simulations done for the SwissFEL case.

Heavy ion beams are a useful tool for conducting high energy density physics (HEDP) experiments. Target heating can be enhanced by beam compression, because a shorter pulse diminishes hydrodynamic expansion during irradiation. A conceptual design is introduced to compress $\sim 100\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{u}$ to $\sim \mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{u}$ heavy ion beams using a wedge. By deflecting the beam with a time-varying field and placing a tailor-made wedge amid its path downstream, each transverse slice passes through matter of different thickness. The resulting energy loss creates a head-to-tail velocity gradient, and the wedge shape can be designed by using stopping power models to give maximum compression at the target. The compression ratio at the target was found to vary linearly with (head-to-tail centroid offset/spot radius) at the wedge. The latter should be approximately 10 to attain tenfold compression. The decline in beam quality due to projectile ionization, energy straggling, fragmentation, and scattering is shown to be acceptable for well-chosen wedge materials. A test experiment is proposed to verify the compression scheme and to study the beam-wedge interaction and its associated beam dynamics, which will facilitate further efforts towards a HEDP facility.

We report observations of an intense sub-THz radiation extracted from a $\sim 3\mathrm{MeV}$ electron beam with a flat transverse profile propagating between two parallel oversized copper gratings with side openings. Low-loss radiation outcoupling is accomplished using a horn antenna and a miniature permanent magnet separating sub-THz and electron beams. A tabletop experiment utilizes a radio frequency thermionic electron gun delivering a thousand momentum-chirped microbunches per macropulse and an alpha-magnet with a movable beam scraper producing sub-mm microbunches. The radiated energy of tens of micro-Joules per radio frequency macropulse is demonstrated. The frequency of the radiation peak was generated and tuned across two frequency ranges: (476–584) GHz with 7% instantaneous spectrum bandwidth, and (311–334) GHz with 38% instantaneous bandwidth. This prototype setup features a robust compact source of variable frequency, narrow bandwidth sub-THz pulses.

The Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF, formerly the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment) is under design as a next generation neutrino oscillation experiment, with primary objectives to search for $CP$ violation in the leptonic sector, to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to provide a precise measurement of ${\theta }_{23}$. The facility will generate a neutrino beam at Fermilab by the interaction of a proton beam with a target material. At the ultimate anticipated proton beam power of 2.3 MW the target material must dissipate a heat load of between 10 and 25 kW depending on the target size. This paper presents a target concept based on an array of spheres and compares it to a cylindrical monolithic target such as that which currently operates at the T2K facility. Simulation results show that the proposed technology offers efficient cooling and lower stresses whilst delivering a neutrino production comparable with that of a conventional solid cylindrical target.

A novel, flexible method of witness electron bunch generation in plasma wakefield accelerators is described. A quasistationary plasma region is ignited by a focused laser pulse prior to the arrival of the plasma wave. This localized, shapeable optical plasma torch causes a strong distortion of the plasma blowout during passage of the electron driver bunch, leading to collective alteration of plasma electron trajectories and to controlled injection. This optically steered injection is more flexible and faster when compared to hydrodynamically controlled gas density transition injection methods.

We present the design of a volumetric metamaterial (MTM) structure and its interaction with a relativistic electron beam. This novel structure has promising applications in particle beam diagnostics, acceleration, and microwave generation. The volumetric MTM has a cubic unit cell allowing structures of arbitrary size to be configured as an array of identical cells. This structure allows the exploration of the properties of a metamaterial structure without having to consider substrates or other supporting elements. The dispersion characteristics of the unit cell are obtained using eigenmode simulations in the hfss code and also using an effective medium theory with spatial dispersion. Good agreement is obtained between these two approaches. The lowest-order mode of the MTM structure is found to have a negative group velocity in all directions of propagation. The frequency spectrum of the radiation from a relativistic electron beam passing through the MTM structure is calculated analytically and also calculated with the cst code, with very good agreement. The radiation pattern from the relativistic electron beam is found to be backward Cherenkov radiation, which is a promising tool for particle diagnostics. Calculations are also presented for the application of a MTM-based wakefield accelerator as a possible all-metal replacement for the conventional dielectric wakefield structure. The proposed structure may also be useful for MTM-based vacuum electron devices for microwave generation and amplification.

We present detailed development of the linear theory of wakefield amplification by active medium and its possible application to a two-beam accelerator (TBA) is discussed. A relativistic train of triggering microbunches traveling along a vacuum channel in an active medium confined by a cylindrical waveguide excites Cherenkov wake in the medium. The wake is a superposition of azimuthally symmetric transverse magnetic modes propagating along a confining waveguide, with a phase velocity equal to the velocity of the triggering bunches. The structure may be designed in such a way that the frequency of one of the modes is close to active-medium resonant frequency, resulting in amplification of the former and domination of a single mode far behind the trigger bunches. Another electron bunch placed in proper phase with the amplified wakefield may be accelerated by the latter. Importantly, the energy for acceleration is provided by the active medium and not the drive bunch as in a traditional TBA. Based on a simplified model, we analyze extensively the impact of various parameters on the wakefield amplification process.