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An experimental study of longitudinal dynamics of space charge dominated beams is presented. We use drive‐laser driven perturbations to study the evolution of space charge waves on an intese electron beam. Collective effects like propagation of space charge waves, superposition of waves and crossing of waves are presented and verified with 1‐D cold fluid model theory. Multi‐turn transport and other collective effects in UMER are discussed.

The University of Maryland electron ring (UMER) is a low‐energy, high current recirculator for beam physics research with relevance to any applications that rely on intense beams of high quality. We review the space‐charge physics issues, both in transverse and longitudinal beam dynamics, which are currently being addressed with UMER: emittance growth and halo formation, strongly asymmetric beams, Montague resonances, equipartitioning, bunch capture and shaping, etc. Furthermore, we report on recent developments in experiments, simulations, and improved diagnostics for space‐charge dominated beams.

The University of Maryland Electron Ring (UMER) is built as a low‐cost testbed for intense beam physics for benefit of larger ion accelerators. The beam intensity is designed to be variable, spanning the entire range from low current operation to highly space‐charge‐dominated transport. The ring has been closed and multi‐turn commissioning has begun. One of the biggest challenges of multi‐turn operation of UMER is correctly operating the Y‐shaped injection/recirculation section, which is specially designed for UMER multi‐turn operation. It is a challenge because the system requires several quadrupoles and dipoles in a very stringent space, resulting in mechanical, electrical, and beam control complexities. Also, the Earth’s magnetic field and the image charge effects have to be investigated because they are strong enough to impact the beam centroid motion. This paper presents both simulation and experimental study of the beam centroid motion in the injection region to address above issues.

The University of Maryland Electron Ring (UMER) is a scaled model to investigate the physics of such intense beams. It uses a 10‐keV electron beam along with other scaled beam parameters that model the larger machines but at a lower cost. Recently, multi turn operation of the ring (3.6 m diameter) has been achieved. In order to have full current transport of the electron beam, and to increase the number of turns of the beam around the ring, injection of the beam from the straight section into the ring becomes crucial. In this work, we report experimental results from the injection and matching of a space charge dominated beam and an emittance dominated beam. We also describe and analyze two methods of injection of the electron beam from the straight section into the ring. In one of the methods, the two injection quads are fixed to a preset value, while in the other both the injection quads are switched off (Collins injection).