General mitigation techniques for coherent beam instabilities in particle accelerators

An important number of coherent beam instability mechanisms can be observed in a particle accelerator, depending if the latter is linear or circular, operated at low, medium or high energy, with a small or a huge amount of turns (for circular machines), close to transition energy or not (below or above), with only one bunch or many bunches, with counter-rotating beams (such as in colliders) or not, if the beam is positively or negatively charged, if one is interested in the longitudinal plane or in the transverse plane, in the presence of linear coupling between the transverse planes or not, in the presence of nonlinearities or not, in the presence of noise or not, etc. Building a realistic impedance model of a machine is a necessary step to be able to evaluate the machine performance limitations, identify the main contributors in case an impedance reduction is required, and study the interaction with other mechanisms such as optics (linear and nonlinear), RF gymnastics, transverse damper, noise, space charge, electron cloud, and beam–beam (in a collider). Better characterising an instability is the first step before trying to find appropriate mitigation measures and push the performance of a particle accelerator, as some mitigation methods are beneficial for some effects and detrimental for some others. For this, an excellent instrumentation is of paramount importance to be able to diagnose if the instability is longitudinal or transverse, single bunch, or coupled bunch, involving only one mode of oscillation or several, and the evolution of the intrabunch motion with intensity is a fundamental observable with high-intensity high-brightness beams. Finally, among the possible mitigation methods of coherent beam instabilities, the ones perturbing the least the single-particle motion (leading to the largest necessary dynamic aperture and beam lifetime) and easiest to implement for day-to-day operation in the machine control room should be preferred.

Development of a hardware-accelerated simulation kernel for ultra-high vacuum with Nvidia RTX GPUs

Molflow+ is a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation software for ultra-high vacuum, mainly used to simulate pressure in particle accelerators. In this article, we present and discuss the design choices arising in a new implementation of its ray-tracing–based simulation unit for Nvidia RTX Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). The GPU simulation kernel was designed with Nvidia’s OptiX 7 API to make use of modern hardware-accelerated ray-tracing units, found in recent RTX series GPUs based on the Turing and Ampere architectures. Even with the challenges posed by switching to 32 bit computations, our kernel runs much faster than on comparable CPUs at the expense of a marginal drop in calculation precision.

Estimation of Phase Noise Transfer Function

Quantifying frequency converters’ residual phase noise is essential in various applications, including radar systems, high-speed digital communication, or particle accelerators. Multi-input signal source analyzers can perform such measurements out of the box, but the high cost limits their accessibility. Based on an analysis of phase noise transmission theory and the capabilities of popular instrumentation, we propose a technique extending the functionality of single-input devices. The method supplements absolute noise measurements with estimates of the phase noise transfer function (also called the jitter transfer function), allowing the calculation of residual noise. The details of the hardware setup used for the method verification are presented. The injection of single-tone and pseudo-random modulations to the test signal is examined. Optional employment of a spectrum analyzer can reduce the time and number of data needed for characterization. A wideband synthesizer with an integrated voltage-controlled oscillator was investigated using the method. The estimated transfer function matches a white-box model based on synthesizer’s structure and values of loop components. The first results confirm the validity of the proposed technique.

Microdosimetry Performance of The First Multi-Arrays of 3D-Cylindrical Microdetectors

Purpose: The present work reports on the microdosimetry measurements performed with the two first multi-arrays of microdosimeters with the highest radiation sensitive surface covered so far. The sensors are based on new silicon-based radiation detectors with a novel 3D cylindrical architecture. Methodology: Each system consists of arrays of independent microdetectors covering 2 mm×2 mm and 0.4 mm×12 cm radiation sensitive areas, the sensor distributions are arranged in layouts of 11×11 microdetectors and 3×3 multi-arrays, respectively. We have performed proton irradiations at several energies to compare the microdosimetry performance of the two systems, which have different spatial resolution and detection surface. The unit-cell of both arrays is a new type of 3D cylindrical diode with a 25 µm diameter and a 20 µm depth that results in a well-defined and isolated radiation sensitive micro-volume etched inside a silicon wafer. Measurements were carried out at the Accélérateur Linéaire et Tandem à Orsay (ALTO) facility by irradiating the two detection systems with monoenergetic proton beams from 6 to 18 MeV at clinical-equivalent fluence rates. Results: The microdosimetry quantities were obtained with a spatial resolution of 200 µm and 600 µm for the 11×11 system and for the 3×3 multi-array system, respectively. Experimental results were compared with Monte Carlo simulations and an overall good agreement was found. Conclusion: We have studied the microdosimetry response under clinical equivalent fluence rate of the first multi-arrays of 3D cylindrical microdetectors covering several centimeters of sensitive area. The good performance of both microdetector arrays demonstrates that this architecture and both configurations can be used clinically as microdosimeters for measuring the lineal energy distributions and, thus, for RBE optimization of hadron therapy treatments. Likewise, the results have shown that the devices can be also employed as a multipurpose device for beam monitoring in particle accelerators.

Numerical Simulations of Laser-Induced Shock Experiments on Graphite

The development of particle accelerators with ever increasing energies is raising the standards of the structures which could interact with the particle beams. These structures could be subjected to strong shockwaves in accidental scenarios. In order to test materials in such conditions, one of the most promising techniques is the impact with high-power lasers. In view of the setting up of future experimental campaigns within the Petawatt High-Energy Laser for Heavy Ion Experiments (PHELIX), the present work aims at the development of a numerical approach for the simulation of graphite impacted by laser beams. In particular, the focus is on the spallation damage caused by shockwave reflection: a sufficiently intense laser beam could ablate the matter until plasma conditions, hence producing a shockwave which could travel inside the material and reach a free surface. A numerical model to properly describe the spall fragmentation of graphite has been calibrated on the basis of literature-available experimental data. The numerical approach is a ‘two-step’ procedure: the first step is the definition of the laser–matter interaction and the second one concerns the description of the shockwave evolution into matter. The simulations satisfactorily reproduce the dynamic response of graphite impacted by two different laser sources with various intensities, despite the difficulties of characterising a phenomenon which is extremely fast and chaotic.