Simulating electron effects in heavy-ion accelerators with solenoid focusing

Contamination from electrons is a concern for solenoid-focused ion accelerators being developed for experiments in high-energy-density physics. These electrons, produced directly by beam ions hitting lattice elements or indirectly by ionization of desorbed neutral gas, can potentially alter the beam dynamics, leading to a time-varying focal spot, increased emittance, halo, and possibly electron-ion instabilities. The electrostatic particle-in-cell code WARP is used to simulate electron-cloud studies on the solenoid-transport experiment (STX) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. We present self-consistent simulations of several STX configurations and compare the results with experimental data in order to calibrate physics parameters in the model.