May 8, 2024

The Future of Particle Beam Experimentation – Innovative New Algorithm Improves Our Understanding

Now, researchers at the Department of Energys SLAC, the DOEs Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of Chicago have actually developed an algorithm that more precisely anticipates a beams circulation of particle positions and speeds as it zips through an accelerator.
This in-depth beam information will assist researchers perform their experiments more dependably– a need that is ending up being increasingly essential as accelerator centers run at higher and higher energies and generate more complicated beam profiles. The scientists detailed their algorithm and approach in April 2023 in the journal Physical Review Letters.
” We have a lot of different ways to manipulate particle beams inside of accelerators, however we do not have a truly precise method to describe a beams shape and momentum,” SLAC accelerator scientist and lead co-author Ryan Roussel said. “Our algorithm considers information about a beam that is normally disposed of and utilizes that info to paint a more detailed image of the beam.”
Normally, researchers explain the positions and speeds of particles in a beam in terms of a few summary stats that supply a rough shape of the beam in general– but that approach throws away a lot of potentially useful information. Beam researchers can take lots of measurements of the beam itself and try to rebuild, in some cases utilizing maker knowing, what the beam would look like under various experimental situations– but those techniques need a lot of information and a lot of computational power.
For this research study, the group tried a new method: They built a machine-learning model that uses our understanding of beam dynamics to anticipate the distribution of particles positions and speeds within the beam, collectively called the beams stage area circulation.
To test their ideas, the group utilized their model to interpret speculative information from the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator at the DOEs Argonne National Laboratory. Consisting of the physics of particle beam dynamics with the speculative data allowed the scientists to precisely reconstruct fine information of the beam using only 10 data points– a task that might take up to 10,000 information points for some artificial intelligence designs that dont include a model of beam physics.
” Most machine learning designs do not straight include any concept of particle beam dynamics to accelerate knowing and decrease the quantity of information needed,” SLAC accelerator researcher and co-author Auralee Edelen stated. “Weve revealed that we can presume extremely complex high-dimensional beam shapes from astonishingly percentages of information.”
The algorithm can currently rebuild a model of a beam along its up-down and left-right axes, as if the particle bunch were a pancake moving down the accelerator course. This kind of reconstruction is called 4D beam phase area. Next, scientists wish to show the algorithm experimentally on rebuilding complete 6D phase space circulations, that include particle positions and speed along the instructions in which the beam is traveling.
Overall, the algorithm is a significant paradigm shift in the method we analyze experimental accelerator data at facilities today, Roussel said.
” We can now use particle beam data in a more detailed, powerful method to improve our scientific goals at accelerators everywhere,” he stated.
Recommendation: “Phase Space Reconstruction from Accelerator Beam Measurements Using Neural Networks and Differentiable Simulations” by R. Roussel, A. Edelen, C. Mayes, D. Ratner, J. P. Gonzalez-Aguilera, S. Kim, E. Wisniewski and J. Power, 5 April 2023, Physical Review Letters.DOI: 10.1103/ PhysRevLett.130.145001.

A graphic representation of a particle beam in an accelerator. Credit: Greg Steward/SLAC National Accelerator Lab
The algorithm combines classical beam physics formulas with machine-learning methods to lower the requirement for comprehensive information processing.
When the direct accelerator at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is operational, groups of around one billion electrons travel through metal pipelines at almost the speed of light. These electron groups form the accelerators particle beam, which is made use of to examine the atomic habits of molecules, ingenious products, and various other topics.
Determining the real appearance of a particle beam as it moves through an accelerator is difficult, leaving scientists with just a rough estimate of how the beam will act throughout an experiment.