NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS OF MISMATCH AND DISPERSIVE EFFECTS ON AN ARBITRARYAMPLITUDE CYCLOTRON-RESONANCE MASER ACCELERATOR

In this work, we perform a self-consistent numerical analysis of a cyc lotron resonance maser accelerator operating with arbitrary amplitudes of the maser beam. We basically investigate the interplay involving w ave dispersion, a possible mismatch between cyclotron and wave frequen cies, and the initial gyrophase spread of the distribution function fo r the accelerating particles. It is shown that for small enough initia l values of particle energies, rapid phase bunching takes place. In th is case, we show how a convenient choice of the mismatch parameter can greatly reduce the limiting influence of wave dispersion on particle bulk acceleration. On the other hand, when initial energies are larger , it is shown that phase bunching does not occur and that a considerab le energy spread may set in. Even in this case, however, a convenient choice of the mismatch parameter can still cause energization for a fr action of the injected particles, although beam quality is reduced. A comparison between numerical simulation and the self-consistent macrop article analysis is also carried out.