Computer-Automated Linac Diagnostics and Data Acquisition
Computer interactive diagnostics have been developed and tested for measuring RF Linac electron beam position and emittance. Electron beam position is measured with ferrite-loaded stripline monitors. The measured signals are processed by an APPLE-II computer, displayed and updated (at the Linac repetition rate) on a monitor. Data to determine emittance is collected by measuring electron beam spot size (using the wire scanner technique) as the focal strength of a quadrupole triplet is adjusted around the focus at the scanner. The emittance is calculated by the APPLE-II making a hyperbolic curve fit to these data.
A Review of Accelerator Instrumentation
Some of the problems associated with the monitoring of accelerator beams, particularly storage rings’ beams, are reviewed along with their most common solutions. The various electrode structures used for the measurement of beam current, beam position, and the detection of the bunches’ transverse oscillations, yield pulses with sub-nanosecond widths. The electronics for the processing of these short pulses involves wide band techniques and circuits usually not readily available from industry or the integrated circuit market: Passive or active, successive integrations, linear gating, sample-and-hold circuits with nanosecond acquisition time, etc. This report also presents the work performed recently for monitoring the ultrashort beams of colliding linear accelerators or single-pass colliders. To minimize the beam emittance, the beam position must be measured with a high resolution, and digitized on a pulse-to-pulse basis. Experimental results obtained with the Stanford two-mile Linac single bunches are included.
MCNP(TM) Version 5.
The Monte Carlo transport workhorse, MCNP, is undergoing a massive renovation at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in support of the Eolus Project of the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASCI) Program. MCNP Version 5 (V5) (expected to be released to RSICC in Spring, 2002) will consist of a major restructuring from FORTRAN-77 (with extensions) to ANSI-standard FORTRAN-90 with support for all of the features available in the present release (MCNP-4C2/4C3). To most users, the look-and-feel of MCNP will not change much except for the improvements (improved graphics, easier installation, better online documentation). For example, even with the major format change, full support for incremental patching will still be provided. In addition to the language and style updates, MCNP V5 will have various new user features. These include improved photon physics, neutral particle radiography, enhancements and additions to variance reduction methods, new source options, and improved parallelism support (PVM, MPI, OpenMP).