No Arabic abstract
We present the results of experimental studies on the transverse and longitudinal dynamics of a single electron in the IOTA storage ring. IOTA is a flexible machine dedicated to beam physics experiments with electrons and protons. A method was developed to reliably inject and circulate a controlled number of electrons in the ring. A key beam diagnostic system is the set of sensitive high-resolution digital cameras for the detection of synchrotron light emitted by the electrons. With 60--130 electrons in the machine, we measured beam lifetime and derived an absolute calibration of the optical system. At exposure times of 0.5~s, the cameras were sensitive to individual electrons. Camera images were used to reconstruct the time evolution of oscillation amplitudes of a single electron in all 3~degrees of freedom. The evolution of amplitudes directly showed the interplay between synchrotron-radiation damping, quantum excitations, and scattering with the residual gas. From the distribution of measured single-electron oscillation amplitudes, we deduced transverse emittances, momentum spread, damping times, and beam energy. Estimates of residual-gas density and composition were calculated from the measured distributions of vertical scattering angles. Combining scattering and lifetime data, we also provide an estimate of the aperture of the ring. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the dynamics of a single electron is tracked in all three dimensions with digital cameras in a storage ring.
Recently, the study of integrable Hamiltonian systems has led to nonlinear accelerator lattices with one or two transverse invariants and wide stable tune spreads. These lattices may drastically improve the performance of high-intensity machines, providing Landau damping to protect the beam from instabilities, while preserving dynamic aperture. The Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) is being built at Fermilab to study these concepts with 150-MeV pencil electron beams (single-particle dynamics) and 2.5-MeV protons (dynamics with self fields). One way to obtain a nonlinear integrable lattice is by using the fields generated by a magnetically confined electron beam (electron lens) overlapping with the circulating beam. The required parameters are similar to the ones of existing devices. In addition, the electron lens will be used in cooling mode to control the brightness of the proton beam and to measure transverse profiles through recombination. More generally, it is of great interest to investigate whether nonlinear integrable optics allows electron coolers to exceed limitations set by both coherent or incoherent instabilities excited by space charge.
The use of nonlinear lattices with large betatron tune spreads can increase instability and space charge thresholds due to improved Landau damping. Unfortunately, the majority of nonlinear accelerator lattices turn out to be nonintegrable, producing chaotic motion and a complex network of stable and unstable resonances. Recent advances in finding the integrable nonlinear accelerator lattices have led to a proposal to construct at Fermilab a test accelerator with strong nonlinear focusing which avoids resonances and chaotic particle motion. This presentation will outline the main challenges, theoretical design solutions and construction status of the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator underway at Fermilab.
We outline the design of beam experiments for the electron linac at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility and for the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA), based on synchrotron light emitted by the electrons in bend dipoles, detected with gated microchannel-plate photomultipliers (MCP-PMTs). The system can be used both for beam diagnostics (e.g., beam intensity with full dynamic range, turn-by-turn beam vibrations, etc.) and for scientific experiments, such as the direct observation of the time structure of the radiation emitted by single electrons in a storage ring. The similarity between photon pulses and spectrum at the downstream end of the electron linac and in the IOTA ring allows one to test the apparatus during commissioning of the linac.
Fermilab is constructing the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) as the centerpiece of the Accelerator R&D Program towards high-intensity circular machines. One of the factors limiting the beam intensity in present circular accelerators is collective instabilities, which can be suppressed by a spread of betatron frequencies (tunes) through the Landau damping mechanism or by an external damper, if the instability is slow enough. The spread is usually created by octupole magnets, which introduce the tune dependence on the amplitude and, in some cases, by a chromatic spread (tune dependence on particles momentum). The introduction of octupoles usually has both the beneficial (improved Landau damping) and harmful properties, such as a resonant behavior and a reduction of the dynamic aperture. One of the research goals at the IOTA ring is to achieve a large betatron tune spread, while retaining a large dynamic aperture, using conventional octupole magnets in a special but realistic accelerator configuration. In this paper, we present results of computer simulations of an electron beam in the IOTA by particle tracking and the Frequency Map Analysis. The results show that the rings octupole magnets can be configured to provide a betatron tune shift of 0.08 (for particles at large amplitudes) with the dynamical aperture of over 20 beam sigma for a 150-MeV electron beam. The influence of the synchrotron motion, lattice errors, and magnet imperfections is insignificant for the parameters and levels of tolerances set by the design of the ring. The described octupole insert could be beneficial for enhancing Landau damping in high intensity machines.
The Advanced Superconducting Test Acccelerator (ASTA) is being constructed at Fermilab. The existing New Muon Lab (NML) building is being converted for this facility. The accelerator will consist of an electron gun, injector, beam acceleration section consisting of 3 TTF-type or ILC-type cryomodules, multiple downstream beamlines for testing diagnostics and conducting various beam tests, and a high power beam dump. When completed, it is envisioned that this facility will initially be capable of generating a 750-MeV electron beam with ILC beam intensity. An expansion of this facility was recently completed that will provide the capability to upgrade the accelerator to a total beam energy of 1.5-GeV. Two new buildings were also constructed adjacent to the ASTA facility to house a new cryogenic plant and multiple superconducting RF (SRF) cryomodule test stands. In addition to testing accelerator components, this facility will be used to test RF power systems, instrumentation, and control systems for future SRF accelerators such as the ILC and Project-X. This paper describes the current status and overall plans for this facility.