Design and test of an RF acceleration system loaded with magnetic alloy for the proton synchrotron of the Xi'an Proton Application Facility

The Xi'an Proton Application Facility(XiPAF)is a facility dedicated to the experimental simulation of the space radiation environment.The facility uses a compact synchrotron as its final-stage accelerator.The synchrotron can accelerate a proton beam from 7 to 230 MeV.Physical design results show that the radio frequency(RF) acceleration system should work in the frequency range of 1—6 MHz and provide a maximum voltage of >800 V.To dilute the strong space charge effect during the injection period,we also aim to achieve multiharmonic acceleration.A compact RF acceleration system loaded with magnetic alloy cores has been designed and developed to fulfill these requirements.The preliminary test results show that the system can work normally with a gap voltage of 800 V.With a further RF power upgrade,the voltage can be improved to >1:2 kV.

Application of the asynchronous advantage actor–critic machine learning algorithm to real-time accelerator tuning

This paper describes a real-time beam tuning method with an improved asynchronous advantage actor–critic(A3C)algorithm for accelerator systems.The operating parameters of devices are usually inconsistent with the predictions of physical designs because of errors in mechanical matching and installation.Therefore,parameter optimization methods such as pointwise scanning,evolutionary algorithms(EAs),and robust conjugate direction search are widely used in beam tuning to compensate for this inconsistency.However,it is difficult for them to deal with a large number of discrete local optima.The A3C algorithm,which has been applied in the automated control field,provides an approach for improving multi-dimensional optimization.The A3C algorithm is introduced and improved for the real-time beam tuning code for accelerators.Experiments in which optimization is achieved by using pointwise scanning,the genetic algorithm(one kind of EAs),and the A3C-algorithm are conducted and compared to optimize the currents of four steering magnets and two solenoids in the low-energy beam transport section(LEBT)of the Xi’an Proton Application Facility.Optimal currents are determined when the highest transmission of a radio frequency quadrupole(RFQ)accelerator downstream of the LEBT is achieved.The optimal work points of the tuned accelerator were obtained with currents of 0 A,0 A,0 A,and 0.1 A,for the four steering magnets,and 107 A and 96 A for the two solenoids.Furthermore,the highest transmission of the RFQ was 91.2%.Meanwhile,the lower time required for the optimization with the A3C algorithm was successfully verified.Optimization with the A3C algorithm consumed 42%and 78%less time than pointwise scanning with random initialization and pre-trained initialization of weights,respectively.

Beam position monitors as precise phase pickups for beam energy measurement at the Compact Pulsed Hadron Source

The 13-MeV proton linac of the Compact Pulsed Hadron Source(CPHS) at Tsinghua University, China,is composed of a 50-keV electron cyclotron resonance proton source, a 3-MeV four-vane-type radio-frequency quadrupole(RFQ) accelerator, and a drift tube linac(DTL). Precise measurement of the beam energies at the exit of the RFQ and the DTL is critical for DTL commissioning. Two button-type beam position monitors(BPMs) installed downstream of the RFQ are used to perform the measurement using a time-of-flight method. The effects of several factors on phase measurement accuracy are analyzed. The phase measurement accuracy of the BPMs at CPHS is better than ± 1.03° at 325 MHz after corrections,corresponding to an energy measurement error of± 0.07%. The beam energy measured at the exit of the RFQ is 2.994 ± 0.0022 MeV,which is consistent with the design value.

Analysis and simulation of the tune ripple effect on beam spill ripple in RF-KO slow extraction

Tune ripple has a significant influence on beam spill ripple in RF-knockout(RF-KO)slow extraction.In this study,a model was proposed to explain how the tune ripple affects the beam spill in RF-KO slow extraction;consequently,a simulation was performed using the lattice of the Xi’an Proton Application Facility(XiPAF)synchrotron to verify the model.The simulation demonstrates that the tune ripple influences the beam spill in two ways.On the one hand,the tune ripple causes a direct fluctuation in the separatrix area,which induces beam spill ripple.On the other hand,the tune ripple influences the emittance growth rate in RF-knockout slow extraction.These two aspects simultaneously contribute to the beam spill ripple.

Design of a compact ring for proton radiation applications

This paper presents the design of a compact proton synchrotron, including lattice structure, injection system and extraction system, for radiation applications. The lattice is based on a DBFO cell and shows good properties like small β_（max） and decent kick arm. Radiation applications require relative strong and continuous beam,so we propose strip injection and resonance extraction for the design. A phase space painting scheme is designed and simulated by ORBIT. The scheme achieves good uniformity in phase space. The extraction system is designed and optimized by multi-particle tracking.

Effects of systematic octupole coupling resonances

The Xi’an proton accelerator facility synchrotron lattice has a systematic fourth-order resonance. The systematic octupole component in dipole magnets is found to have no adverse effect on the dynamic aperture in multiparticle tracking. The frequency map shows particles locked onto the 2v x 2v z-0 resonance. However, we will show that the instantaneous betatron tunes can vary widely around the resonance line for particles locked onto the resonance.