Prospective Students

Education at UCLA PBPL

As the PBPL research program is highly oriented towards student participation, education in beam physics plays a key role in our activities. An upper division course, Physics 150 "Physics of Charged Particle and Laser Beams" has been developed by Prof. Rosenzweig. During this development, a new type of beam physics textbook, which addresses the needs of physics undergraduates as opposed to accelerator professionals, and emphasizes modern laboratory contexts, such as high field acceleration and a unified approach to laser and charged particle beam physics, has been produced. Termed "Fundamentals of Beam Physics", it is now available through Oxford University Press.

The graduate beam physics course series, Physics 250, has been taught in a variety of ways, emphasizing basic concepts, as well as specialty topics. See the links provided at left for more information.

Formal course work is complemented by an ongoing seminar series in current topics on the cutting edge of beam physics research. The topics are wide-ranging and the speakers range from group members to distinguished visitors.

PBPL graduate and undergraduate students are also encouraged to attend as many courses of the US Particle Accelerator School (USPAS) as possible during their time at UCLA. PBPL faculty have been frequently lectured at this school.

Education in accelerator science at the PBPL involves a wide spectrum of practical training in addition to classroom theoretical background. Students are trained for proficiency in the sophisticated 3D modelling codes that are needed for modern simulation and design involving relativistic charged particle motion, collective effects in beams and plasmas, electromagnetic and magnetostatic devices. This deployment of computational tools is necessary to understand the rich effects that are observed in our laboratories, where students confront the experimental hardware: high power microwave sources and resonant cavities, picosecond lasers, high vacuum systems, magnetic beam optics and undulators, ultra-fast (ps-to-fs) beam diagnostics, etc.

The graduate education program is geared towards heavy participation in external collaborations, and in professional meetings. In this way, students undergo training in scientific presentation, and in development of publications. UCLA PBPL also hosts many of these professional meetings.

Current Students

Beam Physics Courses at PBPL

The undergraduate course in beam physics, Physics 150, at UCLA has been developed over the last several years by Prof. Rosenzweig, with the active participation of PBPL undergraduate and graduate students. The presentation in the course proceeds by first reviewing methods in classical mechanics, especially relativity and Hamiltonians, as well as how these methods are related to electrodynamics. With this foundation, a set of illustrative physical examples are introduced which allow the wide variety of scenarios encountered in beam physics to be explored through simple and useful models. The discussion is unified in several ways: the methods of analyzing the transverse dynamics of charged particles (optics) are unified to the discussion of acceleration; the physics of acceleration in linear accelerators is joined with that of circular accelerators, and the beam evolution of charged particle and laser beams are treated with great overlap in approach. Technological aspects of accelerators -- e.g., magnets and accelerator cavities -- are included in the discussion.

The graduate beam physics course series, Physics 250, is generally taught once per year, with are rotation of topics. Recent themes of the course have included:

  • Introduction to Accelerator and Beam Physics
  • Advanced Accelerator Physics
  • Diagnosis of Charged Particle Beams
  • Beam-based Radiation Production
  • Plasma Accelerators
  • Computational Beam Physics
  • Collective Effects in Charged Particle Beams

    • Independent study is afforded students through the Physics 199 course, and a number of undergraduates have taken advantage of this opportunity to do research projects

    Schools

    A number of national and international schools are supported by the accelerator physics community, the most important being the US Particle Accelerator School (USPAS), the CERN Accelerator School (CAS), and the Joint Universities Accelerator School (JUAS). Many of the courses offered through these schools are aimed at professional training in a special topic of beam physics or technology. PBPL students are encouraged to attend as many relevant schools as needed to meet their educational requirements.

    UCLA faculty often lecture at these schools; Prof. Rosenzweig has recently taught a course on high brightness electron beam physics at the upcoming USPAS session to be held in Madison, WI in June, 2004. The lectures and related material are now available online.