Higher order mode beams mitigate halos in high intensity proton linacs

Abstract

High intensity proton linacs (HIPLs) for applications such as Accelerator Driven Reactor Systems (ADRS) have serious beam dynamics issues related to beam halo formation. This can lead to particle loss and radioactivation of the surroundings which consequently limit the beam current. Beam halos are largely driven by the nonlinear space-charge force of the beam, which depends strongly on the beam distribution and also on the initial beam mismatch. We propose here the use of a higher order mode beam (HOMB), that has a weaker nonlinear force, to mitigate beam halos. We first show how the nonlinear space-charge force can itself be exploited in the presence of nonlinear solenoid fields, to produce a HOMB in the low energy beam transport (LEBT) line. We then study the transport of such a beam through a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ), and show that the HOMB has a significant advantage in terms of emittance blow-up, halo formation and beam loss, over a Gaussian beam, even with a finite initial mismatch. For example, for the transport of a 30 mA beam through the RFQ, with an initial beam mismatch of 45%, the Gaussian beam sees an emittance blow-up of 125%, while the HOMB sees a blow-up of only 35% (relative to the initial emittance of $0.2\ensuremath{\pi}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mm}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{mrad}$). Similarly, the beam halo parameter and beam loss are 0.95 and 25% respectively for a Gaussian beam, but only 0.35 and 15% for a HOMB. The beam dynamics of the HOMB agrees quite well with the particle-core model, because of the more linear space-charge force, while for the Gaussian beam there are additional particle loss mechanisms arising from nonlinear resonances. Therefore, the HOMB suppresses emittance blow-up and halo formation, and can make high current ADRS systems more viable.