Non-invasive Beam Diagnostics with Cherenkov Diffraction Radiation

Based on recent measurements of incoherent Cherenkov Diffraction Radiation (ChDR) performed on the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, we present here a concept for the centering of charged particle beams when passing close to dielectric material. This would find applications as beam instrumentation in dielectric capillary tubes, typically used in novel accelerating technologies, as well as in collimators using bent crystals for high-energy, high-intensity hadron beams, such as the Large Hadron Collid-er or Future Circular Collider. As a charged particle beam travels at a distance of a few mm or less from the surface of a dielectric material, incoherent ChDR is produced inside the dielectric. The photons are emitted at a large and well-defined angle that allows their detection with a limited contribution of background light. A set of ChDR detectors distributed around a dielectric would enable both the beam position and tilt angle to be measured with a good resolution.