Halo control, beam matching, and new dynamical variables for beam distributions

We present the status of our work on physics models that relate release to the understanding and control of beam halo, which is a cause of particle loss in high power ion linear accelerators. We can minimize these particle losses, even in the presence of nonlinearities, by ensuring the beam is matched to high order. Our goal is to determine new dynamical variables that enable us to more directly solve for the evolution of the halo. We considered moments and several new variables, using a Lie-Poisson formulation whenever possible. Using symbolic techniques, we computed high-order matches and mode invariants (analogs of moment invariants) in the new variables. A promising new development developments is that of the variables we call weighted moments, which allow us to compute high-order nonlinear effects (like halos) while making use of well-developed existing results and computational techniques developed for studying first order effects