Computational Study of the Beam-Beam Effect in Tevatron Using the Lifetrac Code

Results of a comprehensive numerical study of the beam-beam effect in the Tevatron are presented including the dependence of the luminosity lifetime on the tunes, chromaticity and optics errors. These results help to understand the antiproton emittance blow-up routinely observed in the Tevatron after the beams are brought into collision. To predict a long term luminosity evolution, the diffusion rates are increased to represent long operation time (∼day) by using a small number of simulated turns. To justify this approach, a special simulation study of interplay between nonlinear beam-beam resonances and diffusion has been conducted. A number of ways to mitigate the beam-beam effects are discussed, such as increasing bunch spacing, separation between the beams and beam-beam compensation with electron lenses.