Comparison of linac simulation codes

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) project is a collaborative effort between Brookhaven, Argonne, Jefferson, Lawrence Berkeley, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Los Alamos is responsible for the design of the linac for this accelerator complex. The code PARMILA, developed at Los Alamos is widely used for proton linac design and beam dynamics studies. The most updated version includes superconducting structures among others. In recent years, some other codes have also been developed which primarily focuses on the studies of the beam dynamics. In this paper, we compare the simulation results and discuss physics aspects of the different linac design and beam dynamics simulation codes.

1 INTRODUCTION

An overview paper [1], describes the baseline design and anticipated beam performance of the SNS linac. The beam from the RFQ at 2.5 MeV goes through a MEBT-chopper section followed by a DTL. The first of the 6 tanks in the DTL has 60 cells delivering beam at 7.5 MeV.