Graduate Student / Postdoc Seminar

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Vortex Dynamics of Charged Particle Beams in Cyclotrons

Speaker: Antoine Cerfon

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1302

Date: Friday, March 1, 2013, 1 p.m.

Synopsis:

Cyclotrons have been a successful tool for accelerating beams of charged particles that are then used for basic science experiments, and for nuclear security and medical applications. As new scientific needs emerge, a consistent trend is to push the limits of cyclotron designs, either by increasing the intensity of the beams or by decreasing the size of the cyclotrons. In order to design such high performance machines, it is crucial to understand and be able to control the detailed dynamics of intense charged particle beams.

In this talk, we will present several mathematical models and numerical methods to study large ensembles of particles subject to electromagnetic fields. Focusing on the particular case of the cyclotron, we will then show how starting from a kinetic description we can derive a set of coupled fluid equations describing vortex dynamics in charged beams. We will finish by discussing the consequences of this vortex motion on beam control in cyclotrons.