Optimal transport of particle beams

The transport and matching problem for a low energy transport system is approached from a control theoretical viewpoint. We develop a model for a beam transport and matching section based on a multistage control network. To this model we apply the principles of optimal control to formulate techniques aiding in the design of the transport and matching section. Both nonlinear programming and dynamic programming techniques are used in the optimization. These techniques are implemented in a computer-aided design program called SPOT. Examples are presented to demonstrate the procedure and outline the results. (orig.)