Measurement of Magnetic Axis in Accelerator Magnets: Critical Comparison of Methods and Instruments

We review 19 measurement systems for the magnetic axis of accelerator magnets, used to align machine components. First, we provide some background information and we describe briefly the instruments and methods used for the magnetic and the geometric measurements. For all systems we give then a performance summary in terms of magnet parameters and measurement uncertainties. The dataset is analyzed statistically to identify the parameter with the most influence on the total uncertainty, which is magnet length. Finally we derive scaling laws relating uncertainties to magnet's parameters, and we discuss the relative performance of the various methods.