A quasi-equilibrium beam compression in a recirculator for heavy ion inertial fusion

A recirculating and quasi-equilibrium compression process has been studied as a feasible scheme for the beam buncher for heavy ion inertial fusion. The recirculating beam buncher consists of induction linacs and bending sections. Induction modulators apply the velocity tilt for the beam compression. The applied voltage is controlled so as to moderate the velocity tilt before the bending sections. As a result, the longitudinal repulsion force of the beam is balanced with the bunching force for the most part of the compression process. While the beam is gradually compressed under the quasi-equilibrium condition, the transverse mismatch from the velocity tilt of the bunching beam is suppressed to an allowable level. In this paper, the basic concept of the quasi-equilibrium compression and an estimation of the potentiality as an option of accelerator systems for heavy ion inertial fusion are represented.