U.S. Particle Accelerator School
Accelerator Physics
Sponsoring University:
Texas A&M University
Course Name:
Accelerator Physics
This class is full.
Instructor:
Stephen Peggs, Brookhaven National Lab and Todd Satogata, Jefferson Lab
Purpose and Audience
The purpose of this course is to give a theoretical foundation to the physics and technology of particle accelerators. It is designed for students at the graduate level.
Prerequisites
Students should have had special relativity, classical mechanics and electrodynamics at the upper undergraduate level or higher. Some knowledge of classical Hamiltonian dynamics is recommended.
It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that they meet the course prerequisites or have equivalent experience.
Objectives
Students should gain basic knowledge of the physics (and jargon) of particle accelerators. By completion of the course, students should understand the underlying principles of dynamics in synchrotrons, storage rings, and linear accelerators including periodic and non-periodic focusing systems, magnet and RF technology, synchrotron radiation, and nonlinear dynamics. By the end of the course, students should be able to explain and describe:
- linear motion through a strong focusing lattice, including longitudinal and off-momentum motion;
- nonlinear motion using difference and differential equations, with single particles and bunches;
- characteristics and typical parameters of normal and superconducting magnets and RF cavities;
- linear errors, their correction, sextupoles, chromaticity, and the Henon map;
- octupoles, detuning and slow extraction;
- synchrotron radiation - classical damping and quantum excitation;
- nonlinear betatron resonances.
Instructional Method
There will be lectures mornings and early afternoons for the first nine days of class. Later afternoon sessions will be used for discussion, for working through and reviewing set problems, and for group interactive computer labs. There will be homework, and a final take-home examination on the last day.
Course Content
The physical principles behind the design and operation of electron and proton storage rings and linear accelerators will be described, including relevant aspects of charged particle optics, linear and nonlinear beam dynamics, including synchrotron radiation. Expressions for beam properties that depend on the lattice structure will be derived, and applied to the design of accelerators and storage rings for particular applications. Beam dynamics problems related to single-particle dynamics will be discussed, emphasizing the use of difference equations that lead to N-turn Hamiltonians. The requirements for some of the technical subsystems, including magnets and RF systems, will be considered in the context of their beam dynamics impact on beam behavior and accelerator performance.
Reading Requirements
(to be provided by the USPAS) "An Introduction to Accelerator Dynamics" by Stephen Peggs and Todd Satogata, Cambridge University Press (2017).
Credit Requirements
Students will be evaluated based on performance in the final take-home exam (30% of the final grade), and the homework assignments (70% of the final grade).
Indiana University course number: Physics 570, Introduction to Accelerator Physics
Michigan State University course number: PHY 963, "U.S. Particle Accelerator School"
MIT course number: 8.790, Accelerator Physics