Characterizing a proton beam with two different methods in beam halo experiments

Abstract

In beam halo experiments, it is very important to correctly characterize the RFQ output proton beam. In order to simulate the beam dynamics properly, we must first know the correct initial beam parameters. We have used two different methods, quadrupole scans and multi-wire scanners to determine the transverse phase-space properties of the proton beam. The experimental data were analyzed by fitting to the 3-D nonlinear simulation code IMPACT. For the quadrupole scan method, we found that the RMS beam radius and the measured beam-core profiles agreed very well with the simulations. For the multi-wire scanner method, we choose the case of a matched beam. By fitting the IMPACT simulation results to the measured data, we obtained the Courant-Snyder parameters and the emittance of the beam. The difference between the two methods is about eight percent, which is acceptable in our experiments.