A STORAGE-RING FOR CRYSTALLINE BEAM STUDIES

The possibility of generating crystallized ion beams, i.e. beams whose particles are located at fixed positions, has always excited the inte rest of most people working on particle accelerators. The reason of th is interest has many aspects: knowledge either of a completely new res earch field or of some of the applicative potentialities, connected wi th crystalline beams, would justify a careful investigation of this su bject. After the successful exploitation of electron cooling in severa l heavy ion storage rings the possibility of generating crystalline io n beams became more realistic. New cooling methods, like laser cooling , give a further opportunity to reach an ultracold system of particles necessary for the state transition to the crystalline configuration. The conceptual design of a low-energy heavy-ion storage ring, called C RYSTAL, proposed for the experimental demonstration of crystalline bea ms at Legnaro Laboratories is presented. The physics of crystalline be ams as well as the main criteria to design a storage ring suitable to crystallize ion beams are discussed. The effects of instabilities for space charge dominated beams, shear forces in dipole magnets and latti ce periodicity breaking are also discussed in detail.