Berkeley Lab

Center for Beam Physics (inactive page)

The Center for Beam Physics has been re-organized into the Accelerator Modeling Program and the Berkeley Accelerator Controls and Instrumentation Program. Please refer to those pages for current information on the activities associated with the Center for Beam Physics. This page is being kept online for archival purposes and as a valid destination for links.

An incubator for concepts and technologies with wide-ranging benefits that serve LBNL, DOE, and beyond

CBP is a central innovation resource for the accelerator community. Maximizing the science reach of proton accelerators, and exploring x-ray free-electron lasers, are major themes. CBP staff have diverse expertise in accelerator theory and design, instrumentation, diagnostics, RF hardware, and experimental accelerator physics.

Accelerator Systems and Hardware

Hardware is a longtime area of strength for CBP, going back to its origins as the Beam Cooling Group and to other ATAP programs such as the Bevalac. CBP is a leader in ion accelerator “front ends” and in beam instrumentation and control. More>

Modeling and Simulation

Designing accelerators and their upgrades is critically dependent on advanced modeling and simulation. These efforts find synergies with other ATAP and LBNL strengths, yielding widespread benefit, through the Berkeley Lab Accelerator Simulation Toolkit (BLAST). More>

Femtosecond Timing Distribution

theory_guysA area of special expertise is high-precision fiber-optic distributed timing and synchronization systems that can operate across wide areas. Though the idea had been invented elsewhere, LBNL brought unique innovations and a high degree of development to this system. Its femtoseconds-across-kilometers capability has proved especially useful for Basic Energy Sciences facilities, notably the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and LCLS-II, which is now being planned with substantial LBNL involvement.

Accelerator Theory

Fundamental not only to simulation but to all of these efforts is a theoretical understanding of acceleration and beam physics. Increasing this understanding of beam physics is critical to developing advanced accelerator capabilities. CBP has leading expertise in electron-cloud effects and other phenomena which have the potential to reduce accelerator performance or to limit future upgrades. In addition to developing better models for microbunching, coherent synchrotron radiation, and space charge, CBP scientists have proposed techniques to suppress their impact have been proposed.