Effects of alignment errors in proton non-scaling ffag accelerators

Abstract

Non-scaling FFAGs have gained interest in the past decade for their potential application to charged particle therapy using proton and ion beams. However, linear ns-FFAGs naturally cross betatron resonances throughout acceleration. With an acceleration cycle of thousands rather than tens of turns, we find that resonance crossing produces severe orbit distortion in a linear proton/ion ns-FFAG in the presence of alignment errors. To overcome this, the PAMELA (Particle Accelerator for MEdicaL Applications) lattice design avoids resonance crossing with a non-linear ns-FFAG design. This design is outlined and a comparative analysis of alignment tolerances presented. © 2011 World Scientific Publis..