Beam-based monitoring of the SLC linac optics with a diagnostic pulse

The beam optics in a linear accelerator may be changed significantly by variations in the energy and energy spread profile along the linac. In particular, diurnal temperature swings in the SLC klystron gallery perturb the phase and amplitude of the accelerating RF fields. If such changes are not correctly characterized, the resulting errors will cause phase advance differences in the beam optics. In addition RF phase errors also affect the amplitude growth of betatron oscillations. We present an automated, simple procedure to monitor the beam optics in the SLC linac routinely and non-invasively. The measured phase advance and oscillation amplitude is shown as a function of time and is compared to the nominal optics