Overview of the meetings of the CLIC parameter working group

First meeting, 12 January 2001

Jean-Pierre Delahaye presented some slides to question the centre-of-mass energy, the luminosity, the gradient and the frequency of the main CLIC parameter list. After a lively discussion no conclusion was drawn sofar. A clarification of the requirements from the physics side is necessary.

Second meeting, 2 February 2001

Conclusions on frequency and centre-of-mass energy

Regarding the last meeting and the meeting on the future of CERN, the following conclusions were drawn (see Daniels slide). The working group recommends that we concentrate our work on a centre-of-mass energy of 3TeV in order to meet the needs of the experiments. The acceleration frequency should remain 30GHz.

Possible determination of the gradient

The final centre-of-mass energy will be a function of the gradient, fill factor, site length, length of the beam delivery system and the overheads for single-bunch beam-loading compensation, BNS damping and energy feedback. Most parameters seem relatively certain, see here. One is thus able to determine the necessary acceleration gradient from these parameters.

Length of the beam delivery system

Frank presented two possible options for the final focus system, one is 3.3km long the other one about 1km. In the first one, one could hopefully include the collimation of transverse tails. In the latter one, one might be able to implement part of the transverse collimation. Also energy collimation is necessary. Using an NLC lattice as a basis Thys has found that the system needs to have a length of 4km. One might hope to implement the second half of this system into the long final focus system.

Therefore two main options for the beam delivery region exist.

With the long final focus (3.3km) one has 2km of energy collimation, assuming that the second stage of the energy collimation and the transverse collimation can both be implemented in the final focus system. The total length per side is a minimum of 5.3km.

With the short final focus system (1km) one needs 4km of energy collimation. While it may be possible to shorten this a little, transverse collimation is needed.

In both cases additional space for the matching is not yet included. Franks summary gives a slightly different results partly because he now includes the diagnostic section.

The working group therefore suggests (including Frank) that the target value for the total length of the beam delivery system (of both sides) should be 10km.

Possible implication for the gradient

To achieve the required centre-of-mass energy for a total length of 40km, the gradient would thus have to be in excess of 137MV/m.

Determination of parameter sets for lower energies

Two main different approaches to determine the parameters at lower energies exist. The working group suggests to use the one which concentrates on a centre-of-mass energy of 3TeV and derives the other parameters from there.

Call for collection of critical parameters

Daniel asked the members of the working group to help to identify the critical parameters for different parts of the machine. A non-complete list for the main beam is given here.

Third meeting, 2 March 2001

Limitations of the Site Length

Michel Poehler gave an overview of the possible limitations of the site length. If one wants to be close to the CERN site, the length can be up to 40km without too much of a problem. At each end an extension of another 5km might be possible. But this might lead to severe technical problems and might increase the cost significantly. A site length of more than 50km seems excluded. It was therefore agreed to keep a site length of 40km. If one wants to go beyond a centre-of-mass energy of 3TeV, one might consider some extension.

Limitiations of the Gradient

Walter presented our knowledge of the gradient limitations. The pulsed heating by the RF will induce stress in the structures. The acceptable limit of this stress seems to be given by the yield strength. Depending on the treatment of the copper the yield strength varies strongly. For cold worked copper and for some copper alloys 150MV/m seems well possible. The discussion of the RF breakdown and the damage gave the same result, 150MV/m is not excluded.

Conclusions Drawn

A consensus was reached to propose to stay with 150MV/m and a site length of 40km. It would be very important to test experimentally whether the damaged structures are damaged during processing or continously. Due to limited resources it is likely that this tests can be done only when CTF3 and/or the gyroklystron is running.

Fourth meeting, 16 March 2001

Status of the Damping Ring

John presented the current status of the damping ring. By increasing the beam energy in the damping ring and with the help of wigglers it was possible to achieve the required parameters. The vertical emittance can be 3nm which is the lower value of the range specified in the parameter table of the CLIC-report. The horizontal emittance can be as low as 200nm which is a factor 2 better than required. Not all instabilities have been investigated so-far, but the intra-beam scattering has improved drastically so that it will not prevent us from achieving the target parameters. More studies have to be done in order to ensure that they can also be achieved with imperfections.

Sixth meeting, 16 March 2001

Drive Beam Parameters

Roberto presented the status of the drive beam parameters (his transparencies are here). We have a fairly good idea how to derive the parameters for the drive beam from those for the main beam. The total length of the accelerator determines the total length of the drive beam pulse at production. The pulse length necessary in the decelerator is determined by the fill time of the main linac structure and the main linac pulse length. This in turn defines with the selected multiplication factor the number of drive beams. The main linac accelerating structures also determine the necessary RF power which in turn defines the energy per drive beam. The choice of the drive beam intensity is taken to get the stablest deceleration. Finally a cross check needs to be perfomred to test limits from coherent synchrotron radiation, normal synchrotron radiation, combiner ring impedance requirements, drive beam accelerator stability and so forth.

The optimisation of the beam intensity has been done using an ad-hoc scaling law based on thre existing structures ate 15mm, 20mm and 40mm aperture. It has been proven useful but should be tested in a more systematic way. Based on this scaling it was demonstrated that the highest intensity is the most stable condition. The limitiation on the intensity arises from the single bunch charge limit in the drive beam injector. It was concluded that it would be extremely useful to do this investigation using systematic calculations of the decelerating structures.

The four and six waveguide structures have a potential problem with dipole modes at frequencies significantly below the fundamental. Also the resonant damping seems to lead to problems, the two programs which calculate the structures do not agree. The situation needs some clarification. Other structures are under investigation, for example one with an axial symmetry.

In the discussion it was also very clear that we have difficulties in changing the parameters as long as we do not know which horizontal emittance might be achievable in a damping ring.

It was concluded that, it might be a good idea to go through the exercise of assuming a new accelerating structure with smaller a/lambda. This would allow to understand the implications in some more quantitative way.

Seventh meeting, 8 June 2001

Rediscussion of Parameters at Different Energies

Gilbert presented some transperencies to rediscuss the choice of parameters at different energies. The NLC study claims that at Ecm=3TeV a total length of the two beam delivery systems can be limited to 5km. Following the method to determine the gradient established in the second meeting, this would allow to reach E_cm=3TeV in the available site length with a gradient of only 120MV/m, see slide from second meeting. Gilbert also suggested to reduce the bunch distance from 20 to 16 buckets, the feasibility of this had been demonstrated by Daniel in the RF power source meeting. Gilbert also suggest either to keep the charge per bunch the same which allows to reduce the pulse length by 20%. The drive beam sector length would be reduced from 625m to 500m and the energy gain per sector would be about 45GeV. The other solution may be to keep the pulse length constant but to reduce the charge per bunch by 20%. The energy gain per drive beam sector would then be about 56GeV.

Gilbert also presented two possible low energy options. As presented in the fifth meeting (minutes confidential sofar), one needs only one drive-beam accelerator, which feeds both linacs. In one scheme the gradient in the main linac structures is reduced by a factor sqrt(2) by reducing the drive beam current by the same factor. This allows to reach an initial drive beam neergy that is larger by a factor sqrt(2) the the nominal value. As a result, the drive beam can be used for two nominal drive beam sector lengths. The natural energy step in this case is 100GeV per side. One could split the one drive beam acclerator into two at half the energy each. This would lead to an energy step size of 50GeV per side. The same could be achieved using the double pulse technique described in the fifth meeting, which would save one of the two drive beam accelerators. By reducing the bunch spacing, keeping the bunch charge, decreasing the gradient to 120MV/m and using double pulses one could obtain steps of 45GeV per side.

In the discussion it was emphasised, that a Z0 factory can also be easily built if the natural energy step is more than 45GeV per side. It remains to be investigated if the bunch charge can be kept constant at the lower gradient.

Ninth meeting, 24 August 2001

Gradient Discussion

Frank discussed the necessary length of the beam delivery systems. Currently a solution exists with 12.4km length for both sides. If one reduces leaves one of the two energy collimation stages out this could be reduced to about 7.6km. Using a non-linear system there is hope to be able to reduce the system length to 4-6km. It would then be possible to use a gradient of only 120MV/m and still to reach a centre-of-mass energy of 3TeV.

In the further discussion it was questioned whether the best approach would be to adopt 120MV/m in the design and change all parameters accordingly or to stick with the old parameters. In the latter case more resources could be put into the improvement of the design and to optimize basic choices, as for example the accelerating frequency. The general agreement was that if one can define a good study of these choices which can give results by the end of next year it would be reasonable to concentrate on this.