Longitudinal beam dynamics for different initial distributions at cSTART

The compact STorage ring for Accelerator Research and Technology (cSTART) project aims to store electron bunches of LPA-like beams in a very large momentum acceptance storage ring. The project will be realized at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany). Initially, the Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment (FLUTE), a source of ultra-short bunches, will serve as an injector for cSTART to benchmark and emulate laser-plasma accelerator-like beams. In a second stage a laser-plasma accelerator will be used as an injector, which is being developed as part of the ATHENA project in collaboration with DESY and Helmholtz Institute Jena (HIJ). With an energy of 50 MeV and damping times of several seconds, the electron beam does not reach equilibrium emittance within the storage time of about 100 milliseconds. Therefore, the initial phase space distribution influences the later dynamics and beam properties. We perform longitudinal particle tracking simulations to investigate the evolution of the bunch lengths and phase space densities for different initial beam distributions

Dynamic Aperture Studies for the Transfer Line From FLUTE to cSTART

The compact STorage ring for Accelerator Research and Technology cSTART project will deliver a new KIT accelerator test facility for the application of novel acceleration techniques and diagnostics. The goal is to demonstrate storing an electron beam of a Laser Plasma Accelerator (LPA) in a compact circular accelerator for the first time. Before installing an LPA, the Far-Infrared Linac and Test Experiment (FLUTE) will serve as a full energy injector for the compact storage ring, providing stable bunches with a length down to a few femtoseconds. The transport of the bunches from FLUTE to the cSTART storage ring requires a transfer line which includes horizontal, vertical and coupled deflections which leads to coupling of the dynamics in the two transverse planes. In order to realize ultra-short bunch lengths at the end of the transport line, it relies on special optics which invokes high and negative dispersion. This contribution presents dynamic aperture studies based on six-dimensional tracking through the lattice of the transfer line

Beam Dynamics Observations at Negative Momentum Compaction Factors at KARA

For the development of future synchrotron light sources new operation modes often have to be considered. One such mode is the operation with a negative momentum compaction factor to provide the possibility of increased dynamic aperture. For successful application in future light sources, the influence of this mode has to be investigated. At the KIT storage ring KARA (Karlsruhe Research Accelerator), operation with negative momentum compaction has been implemented and the dynamics can now be investigated. Using a variety of high-performance beam diagnostics devices it is possible to observe the beam dynamics under negative momentum compaction conditions. This contribution presents different aspects of the results of these investigations in the longitudinal and transversal plane

Flexible Features of the Compact Storage Ring in the cSTART Project at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Within the cSTART project (compact storage ring for accelerator research and technology), a Very Large Acceptance compact Storage Ring (VLA-cSR) will be realized at the Institute for Beam Physics and Technology (IBPT) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. (KIT). A modified geometry of a compact storage ring operating at 50 MeV energy range has been studied and main features of the new model are described here. The new design, based on 45° bending magnets, is suitable to store a wide momentum spread beam as well as ultra-short electron bunches in the sub-ps range injected from the plasma cell as well as from the Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test Experiment (FLUTE). The DBA lattice of the VLA-cSR with different settings and relaxed parameters, split elements and higher order optics of tolerable strength allows to improve the dynamic aperture and momentum acceptance to an acceptable level. This contribution discusses the lattice features in detail, expected lifetime, injection, tolerances and different possible operation schemes of the ring

Development of an Electro-Optical Longitudinal Bunch Profile Monitor at KARA Towards a Beam Diagnostics Tool for FCC-ee

The Karlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA) at KIT features an electro-optical (EO) near-field diagnostics setup to conduct turn-by-turn longitudinal bunch profile measurements in the storage ring using electro-optical spectral decoding (EOSD). Within the Future Circular Collider Innovation Study (FCCIS) an EO monitor using the same technique is being conceived to measure the longitudinal profile and center-of-charge of the bunches in the future electron-positron collider FCC-ee. This contribution provides an overview of the EO near-field diagnostics at KARA and discusses the development and its challenges towards an effective beam diagnostics concept for the FCC-ee

Split Ring Resonator Experiment - Simulation Results

FLUTE (Ferninfrarot Linac- Und Test-Experiment) is a compact linac-based test facility for accelerator and diagnostics R&D. An example for a new accelerator diagnostics tool currently studied at FLUTE is the split-ring-resonator (SRR) experiment, which aims to measure the longitudinal bunch profile of fs-scale electron bunches. Laser-generated THz radiation is used to excite a high frequency oscillating electromagnetic field in the SRR. Particles passing through the SRR gap are time-dependently deflected in the vertical plane, which allows a vertical streaking of an electron bunch. This principle allows a diagnosis of the longitudinal bunch profile in the femtosecond time domain and will be tested at FLUTE. This contribution presents an overview of the SRR experiment and the results of various tracking simulations for different scenarios as a function of laser pulse length and bunch charge. Based on these results possible working points for the experiments at FLUTE will be proposed

Development of a Transfer Line for LPA-Generated Electron Bunches to a Compact Storage Ring

The injection of LPA-generated beams into a storage ring is considered to be one of the most prominent applications of laser plasma accelerators (LPAs). In a combined endeavour between Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) the key challenges will be addressed with the aim to successfully demonstrate injection of LPA-generated beams into a compact storage ring with large energy acceptance and dynamic aperture. Such a storage ring and the corresponding transfer line are currently being designed within the cSTART project at KIT and will be ideally suited to accept bunches from a 50 MeV LPA prototype developed at DESY. This contribution presents the foreseen layout of the transfer line from the LPA to the injection point of the storage ring and discusses the status of beams optics calculations

X-ray emission from magnetized neutron star atmospheres at low mass accretion rates. I. Phase-averaged spectrum

Recent observations of X-ray pulsars at low luminosities allow, for the first time, to compare theoretical models for the emission from highly magnetized neutron star atmospheres at low mass accretion rates ($\dot{M} \lesssim 10^{15}$ g s$^{-1}$) with the broadband X-ray data. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the spectral formation in the neutron star atmosphere at low $\dot{M}$ and to conduct a parameter study of physical properties of the emitting region. We obtain the structure of the static atmosphere, assuming that Coulomb collisions are the dominant deceleration process. The upper part of the atmosphere is strongly heated by the braking plasma, reaching temperatures of 30-40 keV, while its denser isothermal interior is much cooler (~2 keV). We numerically solve the polarized radiative transfer in the atmosphere with magnetic Compton scattering, free-free processes, and non-thermal cyclotron emission due to possible collisional excitations of electrons. The strongly polarized emitted spectrum has a double-hump shape that is observed in low-luminosity X-ray pulsars. A low-energy "thermal" component is dominated by extraordinary photons that can leave the atmosphere from deeper layers due to their long mean free path at soft energies. We find that a high-energy component is formed due to resonant Comptonization in the heated non-isothermal part of the atmosphere even in the absence of collisional excitations. The latter, however, affect the ratio of the two components. A strong cyclotron line originates from the optically thin, uppermost zone. A fit of the model to NuSTAR and Swift/XRT observations of GX 304-1 provides an accurate description of the data with reasonable parameters. The model can thus reproduce the characteristic double-hump spectrum observed in low-luminosity X-ray pulsars and provides insights into spectral formation.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, A&A accepte