Initial operation of the first 20 MeV tank of the INR linac

Recently the initial operation of the first 20-MeV Alvarez tank at the Soviet Institute for Nuclear Research (INR) has been completed. An 80-mA, 750-keV proton beam was successfully transported to the tank entrance. The tank 1 tuning includes the following procedures: determination and steering of the beam position at the tank entrance; emittance measurement in the low-energy beam channel and transverse beam matching; preliminary investigation of the six-dimensional matching by using an RF-buncher and focusing elements; determination of the nominal RF amplitude; determination of the nominal injection energy and the high-voltage divider calibration; determination of the phase and amplitude of the two-cavity buncher; production of the 50-mA design pulse current; and measurements of the transverse and longitudinal parameters. Beam dynamic simulation has been used for the linac tuning. By using a multiparticle model a variety of beam parameters, including the influence of the electric and geometric errors on the beam behavior, have been studied in the six-dimensional phase space