Overview of the Micro-bunching Instability in Electron Storage Rings and Evolving Diagnostics

The micro-bunching instability is a longitudinal instability that leads to dynamical deformations of the charge distribution in the longitudinal phase space. It affects the longitudinal charge distribution, and thus the emitted coherent synchrotron radiation spectra, as well as the energy distribution of the electron bunch. Not only the threshold in the bunch current above which the instability occurs, but also the dynamics above the instability threshold strongly depends on machine parameters, e.g. accelerating voltage, momentum compaction factor, and beam energy. All this makes the understanding and potential mitigation or control of the micro-bunching instability an important topic for the next generation of light sources and circular e^+e^- colliders. This contribution will give an overview of the micro-bunching instability and discuss how technological advances in the turn-by-turn and bunch-by-bunch diagnostics are leading to a deeper understanding of this intriguing phenomenon.