[en] To achieve high focal spot intensities in heavy ion fusion, the ion beam must be compressed longitudinally by factors of ten to one hundred before it is focused onto the target. The longitudinal compression is achieved by imposing an initial velocity profile tilt on the drifting beam. In this paper, the problem of longitudinal drift compression of intense charged particle beams is solved analytically for the two important cases corresponding to a cold beam, and a pressure-dominated beam, using a one-dimensional warm-fluid model describing the longitudinal beam dynamics

[en] In plasmas with strongly anisotropic distribution functions, collective instabilities may develop if there is sufficient coupling between the transverse and longitudinal degrees of freedom. Our previous numerical and theoretical studies of intense charged particle beams with large temperature anisotropy [E. A. Startsev, R. C. Davidson and H. Qin, PRSTAB, 6, 084401 (2003); Phys. Plasmas 9, 3138 (2002)] demonstrated that a fast, electrostatic, Harris-like instability develops, and saturates nonlinearly, for sufficiently large temperature anisotropy (T_perpendic_ularb/T_parallelb >> 1). The total distribution function after saturation, however, is still far from equipartitioned. In this paper the linearized Vlasov-Maxwell equations are used to investigate detailed properties of the transverse electromagnetic Weibel-type instability for a long charge bunch propagating through a cylindrical pipe of radius r_w. The kinetic stability analysis is carried out for azimuthally symmetric perturbations about a two-temperature thermal equilibrium distribution in the smooth-focusing approximation. The most unstable modes are identified, and their eigenfrequencies, radial mode structure and instability thresholds are determined. The stability analysis shows that, although there is free energy available to drive the electromagnetic Weibel instability, the finite transverse geometry of the charged particle beam introduces a large threshold value for the temperature anisotropy ((T_perpendic_ularb/T_parallelb)^Weibel >> (T_perpendic_ularb/T_parallelb)^Harris) below which the instability is absent. Hence, unlike the case of an electrically neutral plasma, the Weibel instability is not expected to play as significant a role in the process of energy isotropization of intense unneutralized charged particle beams as the electrostatic Harris-type instability

[en] When an ion beam with sharp edge propagates through a background plasma, its current is neutralized by the plasma return current everywhere except at the beam edge over a characteristic transverse distance Δx_{perpendicular} ∼ (delta)_pe, where (delta)_pe = c/ω_pe is the collisionless skin depth, and ω_pe is the electron plasma frequency. Because the background plasma electrons neutralizing the ion beam current inside the beam are streaming relative to the background plasma electrons outside the beam, the background plasma can support a two-stream surface-mode excitation. Such surface modes have been studied previously assuming complete charge and current neutralization, and have been shown to be strongly unstable. In this paper we study the detailed stability properties of this two-stream surface mode for an electron flow velocity profile self-consistently driven by the ion beam. In particular, it is shown that the self-magnetic field generated inside the unneutralized current layer, which has not been taken into account previously, completely eliminates the instability

[en] Properties of the multi-species electromagnetic Weibel and electrostatic two-stream instabilities are investigated for an intense ion beam propagating through background plasma. Assuming that the background plasma electrons provide complete charge and current neutralization, detailed linear stability properties are calculated within the framework of a macroscopic cold-fluid model for a wide range of system parameters

[en] In this paper, a 3-D nonlinear perturbative particle simulation code (BEST) [H. Qin, R.C. Davidson and W.W. Lee, Physical Review Special Topics on Accelerators and Beams 3 (2000) 084401] is used to systematically study the stability properties of intense nonneutral charged particle beams with large temperature anisotropy (T_{perpendicularb} >> T_parallelb). The most unstable modes are identified, and their eigenfrequencies, radial mode structure, and nonlinear dynamics are determined for axisymmetric perturbations with ∂/∂θ = 0

[en] Plasma neutralization of an intense ion pulse is of interest for many applications, including plasma lenses, heavy ion fusion, cosmic ray propagation, etc. An analytical electron fluid model has been developed to describe the plasma response to a propagating ion beam. The model predicts very good charge neutralization during quasi-steady-state propagation, provided the beam pulse duration τ_b is much longer than the electron plasma period 2π/ω_p, where ω_p = (4πe²n_p/m)^1/2 is the electron plasma frequency and n_p is the background plasma density. In the opposite limit, the beam pulse excites large-amplitude plasma waves. If the beam density is larger than the background plasma density, the plasma waves break. Theoretical predictions are compared with the results of calculations utilizing a particle-in-cell (PIC) code. The cold electron fluid results agree well with the PIC simulations for ion beam propagation through a background plasma. The reduced fluid description derived in this paper can provide an important benchmark for numerical codes and yield scaling relations for different beam and plasma parameters. The visualization of numerical simulation data shows complex collective phenomena during beam entry and exit from the plasma

[en] Stripping cross sections in nitrogen have been calculated using the classical trajectory approximation and the Born approximation of quantum mechanics for the outer shell electrons of 3.2GeV I^- and Cs⁺ ions. A large difference in cross section, up to a factor of six, calculated in quantum mechanics and classical mechanics, has been obtained. Because at such high velocities the Born approximation is well validated, the classical trajectory approach fails to correctly predict the stripping cross sections at high energies for electron orbitals with low ionization potential

[en] Plasma neutralization of an intense ion beam pulse is of interest for many applications, including plasma lenses, heavy ion fusion, high energy physics, etc. Comprehensive analytical, numerical, and experimental studies are underway to investigate the complex interaction of a fast ion beam with a background plasma. The positively charged ion beam attracts plasma electrons, and as a result the plasma electrons have a tendency to neutralize the beam charge and current. A suite of particle-in-cell codes has been developed to study the propagation of an ion beam pulse through the background plasma. For quasi-steady-state propagation of the ion beam pulse, an analytical theory has been developed using the assumption of long charge bunches and conservation of generalized vorticity. The analytical results agree well with the results of the numerical simulations. The visualization of the data obtained in the numerical simulations shows complex collective phenomena during beam entry into and ex it from the plasma

[en] An advanced spectral analysis of a mis-matched charged particle beam propagating through a periodic focusing transport lattice is utilized in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. It is found that the betatron frequency distribution function of a mismatched space-charge-dominated beam has a bump-on-tail structure attributed to the beam halo particles. Based on this observation, a new spectral method for halo particle definition is proposed that provides the opportunity to carry out a quantitative analysis of halo particle production by a beam mismatch. In addition, it is shown that the spectral analysis of the mismatch relaxation process provides important insights into the emittance growth attributed to the halo formation and the core relaxation processes. Finally, the spectral method is applied to the problem of space-charge transport limits.

[en] The formation of a quasiequilibrium beam distribution matched to an alternating-gradient quadrupole focusing lattice by means of the adiabatic turn-on of the oscillating focusing field is studied numerically using particle-in-cell simulations. Quiescent beam propagation over several hundred lattice periods is demonstrated for a broad range of beam intensities and vacuum phase advances describing the strength of the oscillating focusing field. Properties of the matched-beam distribution are investigated. In particular, self-similar evolution of the beam density profile is observed over a wide range of system parameters. The numerical simulations are performed using the WARP particle-in-cell code.