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Welcome to the PyHEADTAIL wiki

PyHEADTAIL is

• a python library to numerically simulate particle beam dynamics;
• based on macro-particles to model collective effects of charged beam plasmas;
• developed and maintained at CERN.

Contents

This wiki explains how to

1. set up PyHEADTAIL
2. use PyHEADTAIL
3. exploit the GPU for simulations
4. contribute to development (and how the workflow is devised)

What is PyHEADTAIL used for?

Beam dynamics studies with PyHEADTAIL include

at CERN:

• radio frequency gymnastics to create hollow longitudinal phase space distributions in the Proton Synchrotron Booster
• injection oscillations with indirect and direct space charge effects at the Proton Synchrotron
• quadrupolar mode frequency shift from direct space charge at the Proton Synchrotron employing particle-in-cell algorithms
• electron cloud instability simulations along the acceleration ramp of the Super Proton Synchrotron
• octupole resonance excitation with direct space charge effects at the Super Proton Synchrotron
• radio frequency quadrupole proof-of-principle studies for enhanced Landau damping at the Large Hadron Collider
• double harmonic radio frequency systems and their impact on transverse impedance related instabilities for the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider

at PSI:

• microwave instability simulations for the Swiss Light Source

If you use PyHEADTAIL for further interesting studies, please let us know.

The collective effects course at the US Particle Accelerator School 2015 has been taught using PyHEADTAIL. The exercises contain jupyter notebooks with instructive examples how to use PyHEADTAIL.