Description of beam instabilities in synchrotrons with wakefields and space charge forces using the circulant matrix model

Xavier Buffat, Adrian Oeftiger, Tatiana Pieloni
AMER PHYSICAL SOC, 2021
Journal paper

Abstract

A new model for the description of beam instabilities in synchrotrons featuring wakefields and space charge forces is proposed, using the circulant matrix approach. The predictions of this model are discussed in light of past ones, with a particular emphasis on the possible mitigation of the transverse mode coupling instability by space charge forces. The existence of transient amplification in spite of the absence of unstable eigenvalues in configuration featuring strong space charge forces is also addressed. It is shown that this behavior can be recovered when considering an airbag distribution. Yet when considering a more realistic Gaussian distribution, the radial modes lead to other types of mode coupling instabilities. The predictions of the new model are then compared to results of an experiment conducted at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron, showing a reasonable agreement.

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High Intensity Beam Issues in the CERN Proton Synchrotron

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This PhD work is about limitations of high intensity proton beams observed in the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) and, in particular, about issues at injection and transition energies. With its 53 years, the CERN PS would have to operate beyond the limit of its performance to match the future requirements. Beam instabilities driven by transverse impedance and aperture restrictions are important issues for the operation and for the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade which foresees an intensity increase delivered by the injectors. The main subject of the thesis concerns the study of a fast transverse instability occurring at transition energy. The proton beams crossing this energy range are particularly sensitive to wake forces because of the slow synchrotron motion. This instability can cause a strong vertical emittance blow-up and severe losses in less than a synchrotron period. 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A good agreement is found for a such simple impedance model. The intensity thresholds are reproduced for zero chromaticity within 30% and it is clear that some damping mechanisms occurring in the measurements are not reproduced by the code. In particular, octupolar components of the field, non-linear coupling and transverse space charge are not taken into account. These limitations could cause some discrepancies between model and measurements. This study allows to establish a broadband impedance model which can be use to predict the dynamics of the instability. A few experiments were done also with the use a gamma transition jump. In this case, the instability appears in the adiabatic regime and the rising of the instability is following the peak density of the beam. Both the intensity threshold measurements and the simulations show that the gamma jump is by far the most efficient way to increase significantly the intensity threshold. 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