PhD defense Glenn Vanbavinckhove @ UvA

The goal of this PhD was the development of tools and techniques for the measurement and corrections of the linear optics in colliders and other storage rings. There are several motivations for the detailed study of beam optics. In the case of colliders, it is because the detailed measurement and corrections of the optic functions determine the luminosity. Large deviations from the design model limit the physical aperture and may lead to potentially dangerous situations where the accelerator gets damaged.

 A new correction algorithm, called the Segment by Segment technique, was developed during the course of this PhD. This technique made the local correction of the optics functions possible. Detailed measurements and corrections using the tools and techniques developed were conducted at the CERN’s flagship accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider. Optics corrections well below tolerances were achieved. The same techniques were applied in SPS, SOLEIL, RHIC and were used to conduct simulations for the damping ring of the future compact linear collider (CLIC).