accelerating-news-arc.web.cern.ch - issue 1

Towards EUROnu summit of achievements: Entering the final phase

Margarita Synanidi — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:33:09 +0000

Towards EUROnu summit of achievements: Entering the final phase
by Rob Edgecock (STFC/RAL), Elena Wildner (CERN)

Image of the full EUROnu article, available here. Image credit: Accelerating News

The EUROnu FP7 design study is investigating three possible options for future high intensity neutrino oscillation facilities in Europe. The project started in 2008 and will finish on the 31st August 2012. It will communicate its results on performance and cost to the decision-making bodies in Europe, in particular the CERN Council.

A consortium of 15 full partners and another 15 associate partners undertake the work on accelerators, detectors and physics. The three facilities being studied are: a 4 MW protons on target “Super-Beam”; a “Beta-Beam” facility producing neutrino beams from the decay of accelerated beta decaying isotopes stored in a decay ring; a “Neutrino Factory” using muons from 4 MW protons impinging a heavy metal target that will be collected and cooled in a cooling channel before being accelerated and stored in a decay ring.

EUROnu is now far advanced and entering a phase where the costing exercises, which have already started, will be intensified. This assumes that the three facilities will be built at CERN, where existing machines and infrastructures will be used as far as possible, for costing of the civil engineering work.

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issue 1

New world record vertical emittance in the SLS Storage Ring

Sabrina El Yacoubi — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:58:28 +0000

New world record vertical emittance in the SLS Storage Ring
by Yannis Papaphilippou (CERN); Andreas Streun (PSI); Marica Biagini (INFN)

Cross section of the SLS beam (in green) is superimposed on an electron microscope picture of a human hair (click image to enlarge). Image credit: Andreas Streun (PSI).

At the end of 2011, the Swiss Light Source (SLS) team reduced the vertical emittance to 0.9±0.4 picometer-radian, a new world record, only five times larger than its limit.

This accomplishment was based on careful magnet re-alignment, application of different steering methods and extending the emittance monitor performance. The blade-shaped electron beam is only 4 micrometers thick (see picture), proving that emittance levels required by future linear collider projects (e.g. CLIC) could indeed be reached.

Emittance, the product of particle beam size and divergence, represents the extent to which beams can be concentrated and defines the performance of light sources, colliders and particle factories. In electron storage rings, emittance is determined by synchrotron radiation. Horizontal emittance is largely specified by beam energy and ring circumference. Vertical emittance however has ideally a very small natural limit although positioning errors of the ring magnetic elements can lead to much larger values.

The SLS Vertical Emittance Tuning (SVET) Work Package within TIARA preparatory phase is a collaboration between PSI, CERN and INFN on instruments and methods for establishing an R&D infrastructure on vertical emittance reduction at the SLS storage ring of PSI.

The TIARA-SVET collaborators are now working on the application of further emittance reduction methods and on a new emittance monitor with higher resolution.

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Upgrading together, HL-LHC and LIU

Sabrina El Yacoubi — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:56:16 +0000

Upgrading together, HL-LHC and LIU
by Kate Kahle (CERN)

The Linac4 accelerator tunnel. Linac4 is the first step of the LHC Injector Upgrade (LIU) project.
Image credit: CERN

On 30 March, participants from the High Luminosity LHC upgrade project (HL-LHC) and the LHC Injector Upgrade project (LIU) held a joint meeting aimed at converging on a set of achievable beam characteristics. After a welcome from Steve Myers, CERN Director of Accelerators and Technology, Mike Lamont gave a summary of the 1st combined meeting held in June 2011.

A talk by Verena Kain describing the transverse emittance blow-up and beam loss presently measured between injection and collision in the LHC itself. Oliver Bruning, deputy project coordinator of HL-LHC, then gave an update of the required beam characteristics at injection energy and Stephane Fartoukh spoke of a micro-batch filling scheme for pacman cancellations. HL-LHC talks concluded with new ideas from Frank Zimmermann including pile-up levelling versus luminosity levelling schemes and the potential gains and losses in performance.

LHC Injector Upgrade talks began with an analysis of the 2011 injector performance by Giovanni Rumolo, after which Brennan Goddard provided an update of achievable beam characteristics at injection. Roland Garoby, head of the LIU upgrade, commented on the means to bridge the gap between the HL-LHC requirements and the potential of the injectors.

In a question and answer session in the afternoon, discussions included the pros and cons of 25 and 50 nanosecond bunch spacing, and of overlapping LIU and LHC beam parameters. A summary will soon be linked to the agenda but for now all presentations are available online.

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Accelerating medical treatments

Sabrina El Yacoubi — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:54:13 +0000

Accelerating medical treatments
by Kate Kahle (CERN)

Image 1: Extract from "Novel Techniques in Proton Therapy" presented at ICTR-PHE 2012 showing the usability of different types of accelerators for proton therapy now and in the future (click image to enlarge). Image credit: Marco Schippers, PSI.
Image 2: Conceptual design for the CIEMAT/CERN smallest-possible superconducting cyclotron for medical isotopes, with a magnet only 0.8 m in diameter. Image credit: CIEMAT.

In February, the physics and medical communities came together at the ICTR-PHE 2012 conference in Geneva. Within the scientific programme, the session "Novel Technologies in Radiation Therapy" looked at the present and emerging roles of accelerators in medical treatments.

The session opened with "Novel Techniques in Proton Therapy" by Marco Schippers, PSI, who explained the need for high quality, accuracy, flexibility, intensity and energy coupled with low prices and hence reduction in size. Currently the cyclotron scores the highest for usability for proton therapy, but, in the future, linacs, FFAG and plasma wakefield may also prove usable options.

In addition, Dewi Lewis, in his highlight talk at the EuCARD annual meeting, presents "Evolution of accelerator design for medical isotopes production", linked to his recent article in the CERN Courier "Medical-isotope cyclotron designs go full circle", This article examines the role of cyclotrons in medicine over the years and discusses the interplay that has existed between industry and the accelerator laboratories. The article showcases the latest collaboration between CERN and CIEMAT, using LHC accelerator technology and expertise to help design and build the smallest-possible cyclotron using superconducting technology with a proton energy of around 8 MeV, the objective being to produce single-patient doses of radioisotopes.

Why do we need a High Luminosity LHC?

Sabrina El Yacoubi — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:49:27 +0000

Why do we need a High Luminosity LHC?
by Kate Kahle (CERN)

Work Packages of the HiLumi LHC FP7 Design Study (WP1-WP6) within the High-Luminosity (HL-LHC) project (click image to enlarge). Image credit: HiLumi LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is set to remain the most powerful accelerator in the world for at least two decades. But beyond the run in 2019–2021, halving the statistical error in the measurements will require more than 10 years of running – unless the nominal luminosity is increased by a considerable amount.

To maintain scientific progress and exploit its full capacity, the LHC needs a major upgrade after 2020. The aim is to increase its luminosity by a factor of 5–10 beyond the original design value and provide 3000 fb–1 in 10 to 12 years.

From a physics perspective, operating at a higher luminosity has three main purposes: to perform more accurate measurements on the new particles discovered at the LHC; to observe rare processes that occur at rates below the current sensitivity, whether predicted by the Standard Model or by the new physics scenarios unveiled by the LHC; and to extend exploration of the energy frontier, to increase the discovery reach with rare events in which most of the proton momentum is concentrated in a single quark or gluon.

This has led to the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project, which relies on innovative technologies such as cutting-edge 12 T superconducting magnets with large aperture, compact and ultraprecise superconducting cavities for beam rotation, new types of collimators and 300-m long, high-power superconducting links with almost zero energy dissipation. The most technically challenging aspects require CERN to form strong external collaborations, which is why part of the HL-LHC project is grouped under the FP7 HiLumi LHC Design Study. [Edited extract from the CERN Courier]

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EuCARD highlights new developments

Sabrina El Yacoubi — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:45:34 +0000

EuCARD highlights new developments
by Kate Kahle (CERN)

Poster for the 3rd Annual Meeting of EuCARD in Warsaw 24-27 April 2012
http://cern.ch/eucard2012. Image credit: EuCARD

From within the project or via invited speakers, highlight talks at the EuCARD annual meeting are always a rich source of information about key developments in the accelerator sector. This year's meeting in Warsaw is no exception.

From the EuCARD project itself, highlight talks include LHC compact crab cavities and beam squeezing schemes, showcased alongside CLIC precision alignment and high-field magnet developments. Topics range from plasma wakefield acceleration to collimator designs, from neutrino physics to superconducting and low-level radio frequency (LLRF) updates.

Beyond the project, participants will also hear about progress in Polish institutes NCBJ Swierk and WUT, as well as accelerator applications such as medical isotope production and accelerator-driven nuclear power. The current status of the EuCARD-2 proposal, which scored 14/15 and will shortly enter negotiations, will also be presented. With such a range of topics showcased, there is certainly something for everyone.

Jewels in the crown: TIARA's key research areas and R&D issues

Sabrina El Yacoubi — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 07:29:58 +0000

Jewels in the crown: TIARA's key research areas and R&D issues
by Paolo Pierini (INFN)

KARA (Key Accelerator Research Area) relevance for future projects and facilities (click image to enlarge). Image credit: TIARA.

A recently published report identifies and describes key, critical items requiring strongly focused R&D activities in the TIARA implementation.

The purpose of the TIARA Preparatory Phase is to set the grounds for a European distributed accelerator R&D infrastructure. It supports a strongly coordinated R&D programme focused on keeping Europe at the forefront of development and deployment of large accelerator-based infrastructures for basic and applied physics. This coordination allows higher efficiency and savings in both resources and time for European accelerator R&D. In this context, the primary objective of Work Package 4 “Joint R&D Programming” (WP4) is to propose a coherent and comprehensive R&D programme that will be carried out by the accelerator community in the future distributed infrastructure.

The starting point of WP4 was an analysis of the R&D needs for the accelerator facilities that are currently under construction (e.g. European XFEL, FAIR, ESS, …) and those that are being planned as major upgrades of existing facilities (LHC upgrades: LIU, HL-LHC) or foreseen in the future (IFMIF, CLIC/ILC, Neutrino and flavour factories, EURISOL, 4th Generation light sources…). An additional effort was directed to identifying emerging ideas and technologies that may lead to a new class of accelerator facilities based on novel techniques, such as plasma acceleration schemes. The General Report on Key Accelerator Research Areas and Key R&D Issues, the first WP4 deliverable, is now available.