Intense Beams Group

The Intense Beams Group is based at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and is part of the UK's Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC).

Members have wide experience of existing particle accelerators such as ISIS and J-PARC and collaborate extensively on theoretical studies for accelerator projects at home and overseas. The focus is on high intensity proton and ion accelerators.

The Group's main strengths lie in innovative development and use of large-scale, high-speed computational tools to model a wide range of accelerator topics.

Principal areas of activity include:

• The design of H- and proton linacs
• Synchrotron design
• FFAG studies
• Studies for a muon based neutrino factory, covering proton drivers, high power targets, muon ionisation cooling, muon acceleration and muon storage
• Advanced neutron sources, including upgrades to the ISIS spallation neutron source and the design of the proposed European Spallation Source (ESS)
• Studies of proton and ion accelerators for cancer therapy
• Advanced simulation techniques

In addition, members of the group are closely involved in education and training, having associations with Oxford University and regularly contributing to lecture programmes at the various European accelerator schools.