Advanced modeling of high intensity accelerators

Abstract

This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The goals of this project were three-fold: (1) to develop a new capability, based on high performance (parallel) computers, to perform large scale simulations of high intensity accelerators; (2) to apply this capability to modeling high intensity accelerators under design at LANL; and (3) to use this new capability to improve the understanding of the physics of intense charge particle beams, especially in regard to the issue of beam halo formation. All of these goals were met. In particular, the authors introduced split-operator methods as a powerful and efficient means to simulate intense beams in the presence of rapidly varying accelerating and focusing fields. They then applied these methods to develop scaleable, parallel beam dynamics codes for modeling intense beams in linacs, and in the process they implemented a new three-dimensional space charge algorithm. They also used the codes to study a number of beam dynamics issues related to the Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) project, and in the process performed the largest simulations to date for any accelerator design project. Finally, they used the new modeling capability to provide direction and validation to beam physics studies, helping to identify beam mismatch as a major source of halo formation in high intensity accelerators. This LDRD project ultimately benefited not only LANL but also the US accelerator community since, by promoting expertise in high performance computing and advancing the state-of-the-art in accelerator simulation, its accomplishments helped lead to approval of a new DOE Grand Challenge in Computational Accelerator Physics.