Chaos in Accelerators Alex

Chaos is a general phenomenon in nonlinear dynamical systems. Accelerators { storage rings in particular { in which particles are stored for 10 revolutions constitute a particularly intricate nonlinear dynamical system. (In comparison, the earth has revolved around the sun for only 10 turns.) Storage rings therefore provide an ideal testing ground for chaos physics. In fact, it is the chaos phenomenon that imposes one of the key design criteria for these accelerators. One might arguably say that the demise of the Superconducting Super Collider project originated from a misjudgement in its chaos analysis at one point along its design path, leading to its rst substantial cost escalation. This talk gives an elementary introduction to the study of chaos in accelerators. Invited talk at Overseas Chinese Physics Association Conference on Recent Advances and Cross-Century Outlooks in Physics, American Physical Society Centennial Meeting Atlanta, Georgia March 18-20, 1999 Work supported by Department of Energy contract DE{AC03{76SF00515. CHAOS IN ACCELERATORS ALEX CHAO Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, P. O. Box 4349, Stanford, CA 94309 E-mail: [email protected] Chaos is a general phenomenon in nonlinear dynamical systems. Accelerators { storage rings in particular { in which particles are stored for 10 revolutions constitute a particularly intricate nonlinear dynamical system. (In comparison, the earth has revolved around the sun for only 10 turns.) Storage rings therefore provide an ideal testing ground for chaos physics. In fact, it is the chaos phenomenon that imposes one of the key design criteria for these accelerators. One might arguably say that the demise of the Superconducting Super Collider project originated from a misjudgement in its chaos analysis at one point along its design path, leading to its rst substantial cost escalation. This talk gives an elementary introduction to the study of chaos in accelerators.