Three-dimensional numerical studies of the temperature anisotropy instability in intense charged particle beams

In neutral plasmas with a uniform magnetic field and strongly anisotropic distribution function (T∥/T⊥≦1) an electrostatic Harris-type collective instability may develop if the plasma is sufficiently dense. Such anisotropies develop naturally in accelerators, and a similar instability may lead to a deterioration of the beam quality in a one-component nonneutral charged particle beam. The instability may also lead to an increase in the longitudinal velocity spread, which would make the focusing of the beam difficult and impose a limit on the minimum spot size achievable in heavy ion fusion experiments. This paper reports the results of recent numerical studies of the temperature anisotropy instability using the newly developed Beam Eigenmodes And Spectra (bEASt) code for space-charge-dominated, low-emittance beams with large tune depression (ν/ν0≦1). Such high-intensity beams are relevant to next-step experiments such as the Integrated Beam Experiment (IBX), which would serve as proof-of-principal experiment for heavy-ion fusion.