Beam halo formation in high-intensity beams

Studies of beam halo became an unavoidable feature of high-intensity machines where uncontrolled beam loss should be kept to extremely small level. For a well-controlled stable beam such a loss is typically associated with the low-density halo surrounding beam core. In order to minimize uncontrolled beam loss or improve performance of an accelerator, it is very important to understand what are the sources of halo formation in a specific machine of interest. The dominant mechanisms are, in fact, different in linear accelerators, circular machines or energy recovering linacs (ERL). In this paper, we summarize basic mechanisms of halo formation in high-intensity beams and discuss their application to various types of accelerators of interest, such as linacs, rings and ERL.