A dispersion-free trajectory correction technique for linear colliders

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a new trajectory correction technique for high energy linear accelerators. Current correction techniques force the beam trajectory to follow misalignments of the beam position monitors (BPMs). Since the particle bunch has a finite energy spread and particles with different energies are deflected differently, this causes “chromatic” dilution of the transverse beam emittance. The algorithm which we describe in this paper reduces the chromatic dilution by minimizing the energy dependence of the trajectory. To test the method we compare the effectiveness of our algorithm with a standard correction technique in simulations of the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) linear accelerator and a design linac for a Next Linear Collider (NLC). While the simulations do not indicate that chromatic dilutions are a serious problem in the SLC linac, they would be debilitating in a future linear collider because of the very small beam sizes required to achieve the necessary luminosity. For example, in simulations of the NLC we have found that with typical alignment tolerances the beam size increased substantially after correcting the trajectory with a standard correction algorithm. In contrast, after correcting with our technique, the dilution was negligible. We feel that this technique will prove essential for future linear colliders.