Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Intrabeam Stripping of H^- Ions in the JLEIC Ion Linac with PyOrbit

Student: Madeline Clyburn

School: Berry College

Mentored By: Todd Satogata

Jefferson Lab is designing an electron-ion collider facility (EIC) to meet the experimental needs of the international nuclear physics community. In Jefferson Lab's Electron-Ion Collider (JLEIC), a potential mechanism for beam loss is intrabeam stripping of the H^- ions in the linear accelerator (linac). As the hydrogen ions interact with each other, there is a chance that an electron will be stripped from each of the ions, creating neutral particles that are unaffected by the electromagnetic fields and are thus lost. The focus of this project was to show whether intrabeam stripping is a relevant form of beam loss for JLEIC. To accomplish this, the pyORBIT code, developed at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), was modified to model the JLEIC linac and simulate the beam dynamics, including the effects of intrabeam stripping. Then plots were created of relativistic velocity throughout the linac. From these plots, it was found that the maximum relativistic velocity of the H^- ion beam is similar to values from previous studies on other linacs; however, the average current per pulse of JLEIC is significantly lower than the current of other linacs. These results confirmed that intrabeam stripping of the H^- ions will have negligible effects on the amount of beam loss in the JLEIC ion linac.