Beam Tracking
As computer performance has improved over the years, beam tracking through beam lines has become more accurate and is an important tool in beam line design and optimisation studies. Various tools are available for beam tracking, however, there are huge differences in their performance. The QUASAR Group is developing codes for beam tracking and has designed and optimized a number of different beam lines.
A highly efficient beam line for capturing a beam of low energy antiprotons right after extraction from an ion trap, transporting and injecting it into the AD-REC recycler ring is very important to minimize losses and fill the ring up to its space charge limit. The injector, or transport beam line, has to transport particles from the trap to the ring, providing focusing and beam shaping and adjusting the energy of the particles to match the energy of the ring.
We have also studied beam transport of a 60 MeV proton therapy beam at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC), UK. This required measurement of beam emittance at several positions of the beam delivery system and we have used the quadrupole scan method to measure all key beam parameters. This was the basis for the development of a complete numerical model of the beamline, including 9 quadrupole and 1 bending magnet.
Plot showing beam transport through the Clatterbridge beam line.
As a contribution to ELENA project at CERN, the QUASAR Group is contributing to the optimization of the beam transport lines from the ELENA ring to the external ion trap experiments. This includes detailed modeling of all electrostatic elements for accurate studies as low energy particles require a higher accuracy in beam tracking so the impact from e.g. external and fringe fields can be adequately included.
Illustration of beam transport through an electrostatic bending element.
Currently involved QUASARs:
Selected publications:
O. Karamyshev, D. Newton, C.P. Welsch, 'Optimization of Low Energy Electrostatic Beam Lines', Proceedings of IPAC2014 (2014) (TUPRO071)
T. Cybulski, O. Karamyshev, C.P. Welsch, A. Degiovanni, 'Beam Emittance Measurements and Beam Transport Optimization at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre', Proc. IPAC13, Shanghai, China (2013) (mopwa059)
O. Karamyshev, G. Karamysheva, A. Papash, M. R. F. Siggel-King, C. P. Welsch, 'Design of the injector for a small recycling ring on the CERN-AD', Nucl. Instr. Meth. A vol 700 pp 182-187 (2012)