U.S. Particle Accelerator School
U.S. Particle Accelerator School
Education in Beam Physics and Accelerator Technology

Linear Accelerators course

Sponsoring University:

University of Maryland
(This session has been cancelled)

Course:

Linear Accelerators

Instructors:

Thomas Wangler and James Billen, Los Alamos National Laboratory

This course presents the fundamental principles of rf linear accelerators including rf accelerating structures and linac beam dynamics. Topics will include traveling-wave and standing-wave acceleration, slow-wave and periodic structures, normal-mode characteristics of coupled cavities, dispersion curves, and cavity figures of merit such as transit-time factor and shunt impedance. The principles of operation of the most common linear accelerating structures will be presented, including the drift-tube linac, coupled-cavity linacs, the iris-loaded structure, and the radiofrequency quadrupole. We will treat focusing and defocusing effects in a linac, and the longitudinal and transverse beam dynamics for both noninteracting particles and high-intensity beams. We will discuss such topics as emittance growth, space-charge effects, and wake fields, all of which are important in modern high-intensity linacs. We will show examples of modern high-power proton linac designs for spallation neutron sources and other applications. Prerequisites: electromagnetism and classical mechanics.