Knowledge rule base for the beam optics program TRACE 3-D

An expert system type of knowledge rule base has been developed for the input parameters used by the particle beam transport program TRACE 3-D. The goal has been to provide the program´s user with adequate on-screen information to allow him to initially set up a problem with minimal “off-line” calculations. The focus of this work has been in developing rules for the parameters which define the beam line transport elements. Ten global parameters, the particle mass and charge, beam energy, etc., are used to provide “expert” estimates of lower and upper limits for each of the transport element parameters. For example, the limits for the field strength of the quadrupole element are based on a water-cooled, iron-core electromagnet with dimensions derived from practical engineering constraints, and the upper limit for the effective length is scaled with the particle momenta so that initially parallel trajectories do not cross the axis inside the magnet. Limits for the quadrupole doubler and triplet parameters incorporate these rules and additional rules based on stable FODO lattices and bidirectional focusing requirements. The structure of the rule base is outlined and examples for the quadrupole singlet, doublet and triplet are described. The rule base has been implemented within the Shell for Particle Accelerator Related Codes (SPARC) graphical user interface (GUI)