Ion-Hose Instability in Long Pulse Induction Accelerators

Abstract

The ion-hose (or fast-ion) instability sets limits on the allowable vacuum in a long-pulse, high current accelerator. Beam-induced ionization of the background gas leads to the formation of an ion channel which couples to the transverse motion of the beam. The instability is studied analytically and numerically for several ion frequency distributions. The effects of beam envelope oscillations on the growth of the instability will be discussed. The saturated non-linear growth of the instability is derived analytically and numerically for two different ion frequency distributions.