Advances and applications of ABCI

ABCI (Azimuthal Beam Cavity Interaction) is a computer program which solves the Maxwell equations directly in the time domain when a Gaussian beam goes through an axi-symmetrical structure on or off axis. Many new features have been implemented in the new version of ABCI (presently version 6.6), including the "moving mesh" and Napoly's method of calculation of wake potentials. The mesh is now generated only for the part of the structure inside a window, and moves together with the window frame. This moving mesh option reduces the number of mesh points considerably, and very fine meshes can be used. Napoly's integration method makes it possible to compute wake potentials in a structure such as a collimator, where parts of the cavity material are at smaller radii than that of the beam pipes, in such a way that the contribution from the beam pipes vanishes. For the monopole wake potential, ABCI can be applied even to structures with unequal beam pipe radii. Furthermore, the radial mesh size can be varied over the structure, permitting to use a fine mesh only where actually needed. With these improvements, the program allows computation of wake fields for structures far too complicated for older codes. Plots of a cavity shape and wake potentials can be obtained in the form of a Top Drawer file. The program can also calculate and plot the impedance of a structure and/or the distribution of the deposited energy as a function of the frequency from Fourier transforms of wake potentials. Its usefulness is illustrated by showing some numerical examples.<>