Computer assisted accelerator tuning

The challenge of tuning an induction accelerator in real time has been addressed with the new TUNE GUIDE code. The code initializes a beam at a particular position using a tracer particle representation of the phase space. The particles are transported using a matrix formulation, element by element along the beamline assuming that the field of a solenoid, or steering element is constant over its length. The other allowed elements are gaps and drift sections. A great deal of effort has been spent programming TUNE GUIDE to operate under the IBMPC Windows 3.1 system. This system features an intuitive, menu driven interface, which provides an ability to rapidly change beamline component parameter values. Consequently various accelerator setups can be explored and new values determined in real time while the accelerator is operating. In addition the code has the capability of varying a component value over a range and then plotting the resulting beam properties, such as radius or centroid position, at a down stream position. Element parameter editing is also included along with an on-line hyper text oriented help package