Tuning methods for multigap drift tube linacs
Abstract
Multigap cavities are used extensively in linear accelerators to achieve velocities up to a few percent of the speed of light, driving nuclear physics research around the world. Unlike for single-gap structures, there is no closed-form expression to calculate the output beam parameters from the cavity voltage and phase. To overcome this, we propose to use a method based on the integration of the first and second moments of the beam distribution through the axially symmetric time-dependent fields of the cavity. A beam-based calibration between the model's electric field scaling and the machine's rf amplitudes is presented, yielding a fast online energy change method, returning cavity amplitude and phase necessary for a desired output beam energy and energy spread. The method is validated with 23Na6+ beam energy measurements.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2504.12502,
title = {Tuning methods for multigap drift tube linacs},
author = {Olivier Shelbaya and Rick Baartman and Peter Braun and Paul Matthew Jung and Oliver Kester and Thomas Planche and Holger Podlech and Stephanie Diana Radel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.12502},
year = {2025}
}