Alfred Moretti

Gaseous Hydrogen and Muon Accelerators

Ionization cooling, a method for shrinking the size of a particle beam, is an essential technique for future particle accelerators that use muons. In this technique, muons lose energy in all three directions by passing through an absorber while only the longitudinal energy is regenerated by RF cavities. Thus the beam phase space area decreases down to the limit of multiple scattering in the energy absorber. Hydrogen is the material of choice for ionization cooling because of its long radiation length relative to its energy loss. In the application discussed here, dense gaseous hydrogen also suppresses RF breakdown by virtue of the Paschen effect, thereby allowing higher accelerating gradients and a shorter and less‐expensive cooling channel. As described in this paper, a channel of RF cavities pressurized with about 3 tons of cold hydrogen gas could provide transverse muon cooling for a Muon Collider or Neutrino Factory. The present status of this research effort and several issues related to the use of h...

Studies of RF Breakdown of Metals in Dense Gases

A study of RF breakdown of metals in gases has begun as part of a program to develop RF cavities filled with dense hydrogen gas to be used for muon ionization cooling. A pressurized 805 MHz test cell is being used at Fermilab to compare the conditioning and breakdown behavior of copper, molybdenum, chromium, and beryllium electrodes as functions of hydrogen and helium gas densities. These results will be compared to the predicted or known RF breakdown behavior of these metals in vacuum.

Vacuum RF Breakdown of Accelerating Cavities in Multi-Tesla Magnetic Fields

Ionization cooling of intense muon beams requires the operation of high-gradient, normal-conducting RF structures within multi-Tesla magnetic fields. The application of strong magnetic fields has been shown to lead to an increase in vacuum RF breakdown. This phenomenon imposes operational (i.e. gradient) limitations on cavities in ionization cooling channels, and has a bearing on the design and operation of other RF structures as well, such as photocathodes and klystrons. We present recent results from Fermilab’s MuCool Test Area (MTA), in which 201 and 805 MHz cavities were operated at high power both with and without the presence of multi-Tesla magnetic fields.

Thin RF Windows for High-Pressure Gas-Filled Cavities

RF cavities for muon ionization cooling channels can be separated by RF windows to improve the internal voltage profile in each cavity and to make the cavities independent of each other. The window material must be sufficiently transparent to muons so as not to affect the beam cooling. The windows should thus be thin and made of a low-Z material. A thin, flat, beryllium window was studied in order to improve the performance of pressurized RF cavities. Electromagnetic analysis was performed to solve for the fields, frequency, quality factor, and RF power loss density. Natural convection analysis of the gas within the cavity was performed to solve for the gas temperature and the gas film coefficient. Thermal analysis of the window was performed to determine its temperature profile. For the case of pressurized RF cavities, in contrast to those that operate in vacuum, thinner and simpler window designs can be used. This is due to the external gas cooling of the window.

MANX, A 6-D Muon Cooling Demonstration Experiment

Most ionization cooling schemes now under consideration are based on using many large flasks of liquid hydrogen energy absorber. One important example is the proposed Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE), which has recently been approved to run at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). In the work reported here, a potential muon cooling demonstration experiment based on a continuous liquid energy absorber in a helical cooling channel (HCC) is discussed. The original HCC used a gaseous energy absorber for the engineering advantage of combining the energy absorption and RF energy regeneration in hydrogen-filled RF cavities. In the Muon And Neutrino eXperiment (MANX) that is proposed here, a liquid-filled HCC is used without RF energy regeneration to achieve the largest possible cooling rate in six dimensions. In this case, the magnetic fields of the HCC must diminish as the muons lose momentum as they pass through the liquid energy absorber. The length of the MANX device is determined by the maximum momentum of the muon test beam and the maximum practical field that can be sustained at the magnet coils. We have studied a 3 meter-long HCC example that could be inserted between the MICE spectrometers at RAL.

Continued Conditioning of the Fermilab 400 MeV linac high-gradient side-couple cavities

The high energy portion of the Fermilab 400 MeV Linac is made of high gradient (37 MV/meter surface field) side-coupled cavity section which were conditioned over a 10 month period before their installation in August of 1993. We have continued to monitor the conditioning of these cavities since that time while the cavities have been operation, and those results are presented here. The sparking rate and the X-ray production are measured and compared with the 1992/1993 pre-operational and 1993/1994 early operational measurements. These rates are consistent with a continued diminishing of these phenomena. Predictions and spark management strategies presented in earlier reports are evaluated in light of present experiences. We also have been measuring the sparking rate within this structure with and without our 50 mA peak beam. We find that the sparking rate is 20% higher with beam in the accelerator.