Comparative study of medium damped and detuned linear accelerator structures

Long range wakefields are a serious concern for a future linear collider based on room temperature accelerating structures. They can be suppressed either by detuning and or local damping or with some combination of both strategies. Detuning relies on precisely phasing the contributions of the dipole modes excited by the passage of a single bunch. This is accomplished by controlling individual mode frequencies, a process which dictates individual cell dimensional tolerances. Each mode must be excited with the correct strength; this in turn, determines cell-to-cell alignment tolerances. In contrast, in a locally damped structure, the modes are attenuated at the cell level. Clearly, mode frequencies and relative excitation become less critical in that context; mechanical fabrication tolerances can be relaxed. While local damping is ideal from the standpoint of long range wakefield suppression, this comes at the cost of reducing the shunt impedance and possibly unacceptable localized heating. Recently, the Medium Damped Structure (MDS), a compromise between detuning and local damping, has generated some interest. In this paper, we compare a hypothetical MDS to the NLC Rounded Damped Detuned Structure (RDDS) and investigate possible advantages from the standpoint fabrication tolerances and their relation to beam stability and emittance preservation.