Introduction to the physics of particle accelerators

The purpose of this course is to illustrate the application of the principles of physics in the field of particle accelerators. The emphasis is on the principles rather than the technology. The authors do not attempt to survey the entire field. Rather, they have selected topics that are consistent with their experience and that they think are interesting. Since they have primarily worked with synchrotrons, much of the discussion will relate to this variety of accelerator. The first half of the course deals with the motion of a single particle under the influence of electric and magnetic fields. The basic language of linear and circular accelerators is developed in this material. The principle of phase stability is introduced, and phase oscillations in linacs and synchrotrons are studied. Next, the by-now standard treatment of betatron oscillations is presented, followed by an excursion into nonlinear dynamics and its application to accelerators. A specialist in accelerator dynamics would likely use more sophisticated techniques than is used in much of this discussion. Though they do make use of the Hamiltonian formalism in some of the treatment of non-linear motion, they feel that a more elementary approach is better suited for an introduction to the subject. In the first half of the course the particles are assumed to interact neither with each other nor with their environment. During the second half of the course, these restrictions are removed, and much of the discussion relates to intensity-dependent effects - in particular, space charge, and coherent instabilities. 14 references