SIR Physics Investigation Abstract
CHARACTERIZING THE BOOSTER BEAM USING IPM DATA
Presenter:
Matthew R. Drake, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, 1500 West Sullivan Road, Aurora, IL, 60506
Mentors:
Dr. Jim Amundson, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Dr. Panagiotis Spentzouris, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Abstract:
The purpose of this work is to study the behavior of the beam in the Fermilab Booster accelerator, and quantify its dependence on the Booster operational parameters. The Booster, the first circular accelerator in the Fermilab accelerator complex, accelerates protons from 400 MeV to 8 GeV in 20,000 turns. Ideally, the beam profile maintains a Gaussian shape throughout the cycle. In reality, however, various effects cause the beam to develop non-Gaussian tails, which create losses in the beam. Using the Ionization Profile Monitor detector within the Booster, we measured the turn-by-turn beam profiles for different operational parameters. We then extracted the ratio of the non-Gaussian to the Gaussian contribution by fitting the profiles. For this, we utilized GNU Octave, a scripting program which allowed us to plot and analyze the profiles as needed. Finally, we compared the ratios from the first 500 turns to the last 500 turns, for the different data sets, and identified which operational parameter set produced the lowest ratios, and consequently the most Gaussian profiles.