Vicky: a Computer Code for Use in the Design and Simulation of Particle Accelerators

Vicky is a computer code under development for designing and simulating particle accelerators. Like other existing codes, the features include machine imperfections, closed orbit correction, Twiss functions matching, chromaticity evaluation and correction, particle tracking and so on. The goal is to give the users a friendly graphical interface with widgets to perform the wished tasks, for example to plot the orbit, the Twiss functions, the tune diagram, the dynamic aperture and so on, to select and read an input file describing the considered lattice, to perform the Twiss functions matching, a closed orbit correction and so on. The code provides a description of the particle motion by 10 parameters: four beta-functions, four alpha-functions and two phase advances, meaning a 4*4 generalized transverse coupling, together with an emphasis on the treatment of the complex 3D magnetic fields of the undulators used in today’s modern synchrotron radiation facilities. The code is written in C++. It uses the free packages QT for the online plots and the graphical user interface and IT++ for the mathematics. The present status and some results of its application will be presented.