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

Linear Accelerators course

Sponsoring University:

University of Colorado at Boulder

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 for normal and superconducting linacs. Topics will include RF acceleration, periodic accelerating 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 RFQ. We will treat focusing and defocusing effects in a linac, and the longitudinal and transverse beam dynamics for both non-interacting particles and high-intensity beams. We will discuss such topics as emittance growth, space-charge effects, wakefields, and the beam breakup instability, all of which are important in modern high-intensity linacs. Prerequisites: Electromagnetism and Classical Mechanics.