Survey of Collective Instabilities and Beam-Plasma Interactions in Intense Heavy Ion Beams

This paper presents a survey of the present theoretical understanding based on advanced analytical and numerical studies of collective processes and beam-plasma interactions in intense heavy ion beams for applications to ion-beam-driven high energy density physics and heavy ion fusion. The topics include: discussion of the conditions for quiescent beam propagation over long distances; and the electrostatic Harris instability and the transverse electromagnetic Weibel instability in highly anisotropic, intense one-component ion beams. In the longitudinal drift compression and transverse compression regions, collective processes associated with the interaction of the intense ion beam with a charge-neutralizing background plasma are described, including the electrostatic electron-ion two-stream instability, the multispecies electromagnetic Weibel instability, and collective excitations in the presence of a solenoidal magnetic field. The effects of a velocity tilt on reducing two-stream instability growth rates are also discussed. Operating regimes are identified where the possible deleterious effects of collective processes on beam quality are minimized

Two-stream Stability Properties of the Return-Current Layer for Intense Ion Beam Propagation Through Background Plasma

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 Δχ⊥ ∼ δpe, where δpe = c/ωpe is the collisionless skin depth, and ωpe 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

Approximate kinetic quasiequilibrium distributions for intense beam propagation through a periodic focusing quadrupole lattice

The transverse dynamics of an intense charged particle beam propagating through a periodic quadrupole focusing lattice is described by the nonlinear Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations, where the propagation distances play the role of time. To determine matched-beam quasiequilibrium distribution functions, one needs to determine a dynamical invariant for the beam particles moving in the combined applied and self-generated fields. In this paper, a perturbative Hamiltonian transformation method is developed which is an expansion in the particle’s vacuum phase advance ϵ[over ¯]∼σ_{v}/2π, treated as a small parameter, which is used to transform away the fast particle orbit oscillations and obtain the average Hamiltonian accurate to order ϵ[over ¯]^{3}. The average Hamiltonian is an approximate invariant of the original system, and can be used to determine self-consistent beam quasiequilibrium solutions that are matched to the focusing channel. The equation determining the average self-field potential is derived for general boundary conditions by taking into account the average contribution of the charges induced on the boundary. It is shown for a cylindrical conducting boundary that the average self-field potential acquires an octupole component, which results in the average motion of some beam particles being nonintegrable and their trajectories chaotic. This chaotic behavior of the beam particles may significantly change the nature of the Landau damping (or growth) of collective excitations supported by an intense charged particle beam

New Spectral Method for Halo Particle Definition in Intense Mis-matched Beams

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