Error localization in RHIC by fitting difference orbits

Abstract

The presence of realistic errors in an accelerator or in the model used to describe the accelerator are such that a measurement of the beam trajectory may deviate from prediction. Comparison of measurements to model can be used to detect such errors. To do so the initial conditions (phase space parameters at any point) must be determined which can be achieved by fitting the difference orbit compared to model prediction using only a few beam position measurements. Using these initial conditions, the fitted orbit can be propagated along the beam line based on the optics model. Measurement and model will agree up to the point of an error. The error source can be better localized by additionally fitting the difference orbit using downstream BPMs and back-propagating the solution. If one dominating error source exist in the machine, the fitted orbit will deviate from the difference orbit at the same point.