What are you doing, Mr X? Part 5
This week’s Mr. X is “Sir” James Hunt. James has joined the QUASAR Group back in summer 2014. His project focuses on a research into a detailed understanding of low energy ion beams, in particular antiproton beams. The lower the energy of a beam, the more sensitive it is to external influences, such as field errors, stray fields, or unavoidable misalignment of accelerator components. In simulation studies, James considers all of these effects and assesses the impact of them on the final beam quality.
Furthermore, James is also studying ways of knowing more about the beam itself. Specifically, he has developed a method by which he can measure on of the most important beam parameters, the so-called beam emittance, by moving mechanical plates in/out of the beam. He has tested his algorithm in simulations for a variety of scenarios and will also implement this in the brand-new ELENA accelerator at CERN in Switzerland. Measurements will then tell him how precise his simulations are and indicate option for further improvement of his models.
Close interaction with experts from the various antimatter experiments, as well as the accelerator specialists from CERN, are very important for this work to be successful. To this end James has spent no less than 4 months at CERN throughout 2016 which has allowed him to work closely with his collaboration partners. Further measurements are planned in 2017 and he is also writing up his results for a journal article that shall be published by the summer.