Accelerators for pedestrians

These notes are derived from a course of 11 lectures, which were originally designed as a very basic introduction to circular particle accelerators for people with little or no previous experience in the field. The course itself has since been refined and is now given on a regular basis for the PS accelerator operations technicians. Wherever possible, I have tried to describe the basic theory of synchrotrons and storage rings using simple, easy to follow ideas and models. For this reason, complicated mathematical arguments have been avoided as much as possible. The following topics are covered. - Matrices and the simple harmonic oscillator - Relativity, units, Dipole and Quadrupole magnets - Lattices and Twiss parameters - Tune shifts, closed orbit, and dispersion - Chromaticity, Sextupoles, resonances and coupling - Longitudinal motion and RF - What is special about electrons and positrons? - Transfer lines, injection and ejection - Longitudinal Beam Instabilities - Transverse Beam Instabilities - Schottky Noise and Stochastic cooling