End-to-end beam dynamics simulations of the ISF driver linac

The proposed Isotope Science Facility (ISF) is a major upgrade of the coupled cyclotron facility at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) that will provide the nuclear science community with world-class beams of rare isotopes. The ISF driver linac will consist of a front-end and three acceleration segments of superconducting cavities separated by two charge-stripping sections, and will be capable of delivering primary beams ranging from protons to uranium with variable energies of ≥200 MeV/nucleon. The end-to-end beam simulation studies including beam element misalignments, dynamic rf amplitude and phase errors, and variations in the stripping foil thickness, have been performed to evaluate the driver linac performance. The beam simulation effort was focused on the most challenging uranium beam with multiple charge states using the newly-developed RIAPMTQ/IMPACT codes. This paper describes the ISF, discusses the beam dynamics issues, and presents the end-to-end beam simulation results.