The Particle Beam Optics Laboratory: Enhancing the Scientific Productivity of the Accelerator Community

The increasing use of accelerators for a variety of practical applications, as well as for many types of research programs, has resulted in an expanding need for software that focuses on the requirements of the accelerator community. This paper summarizes several recent advances in software developed to meet a number of those requirements. The Particle Beam Optics Laboratory (PBO LabTM) family of software applications was designed to support three primary areas: accelerator operations, beamline design, and personnel training. The PBO Lab Basic Package provides a unique and intuitive GUI whose signature feature is a drag and drop graphical beamline construction kit. An interactive tutorial system links physics and engineering concepts and discussions to individual icons, providing a unique computer based teaching tool that has been used for several years by the U. S. Particle Accelerator School. Particle optics codes have always been important tools for accelerator science, and a number of popular optics codes have been integrated into the framework and several are now available commercially as PBO Lab Application Modules, including MARYLIE, TRANSPORT, TURTLE, DECAY-TURTLE and TRACE 3-D. Complex optimization problems can be addressed by using a new Optimization Module which seamlessly integrates the NPSOL and MINOS nonlinear, constrained, optimization programs into PBO Lab. An overview of the current version of PBO Lab is described and several of the capabilities are discussed.