Strong steering of intense electron beams in circular accelerators with transverse wire arrays

Theoretical studies of transverse conductors of novel geometries that exert strong steering forces are reported. The concept of foil focusing has been extended to structures that are nonuniform in the transverse direction. The limiting case is an axial array of single wires along a diameter of the transport tube. The strong steering force and high transparency of wire arrays suggest applications to circular accelerators such as recirculating induction linacs. As an example of capabilities, a wire array can contain a 50-MeV, 30-kA electron beam with a tube radius of curvature of only 0.5 m. An energy error of 20 MeV shifts the beam axis only about 1 mm. The high momentum acceptance may have applications to multipass recirculators.<>