BLAST – Beam, Plasma & Accelerator Simulation Toolkit

Snapshot from a WarpX 3-D simulation of a laser-driven plasma accelerator. The laser (red) propagates from left to right and creates a plasma wake (yellow and blue) that accelerates a small electron beam (white) to high energy. A mesh refinement patch (green box) is used to increase the resolution and accuracy around the electron beam.
Tevatron collision in BeamBeam3D: This visualization of colliding bunches in the Tevatron was produced with the LBNL code BeamBeam3D by Eric G. Stern et al. at Fermilab. The code has been applied to several real and notional or proposed colliders, including the LHC, RHIC, Tevatron, PEP-II, KEKB, and ELIC.
Phase shift in an FEL linac with IMPACT: As part of a study of next-generation light sources based on free-electron lasers, LBNL used its IMPACT code to study the electron linacs. Shown here is energy distribution vs. phase angle at a drift-tube linac in the medium-energy beam transport system.
Collision modeled in BeamBeam3D: This visualization of two beam bunches before, during, and after collision was produced with the LBNL code BeamBeam3D. The code has been applied to several real and notional or proposed colliders, including the LHC, RHIC, Tevatron, PEP-II, KEKB, and ELIC.
Warp simulation of two-color laser-plasma injection: This visualization is from a Warp simulation of two-color injection, a new method proposed for introducing very-low-emittance electron beams into plasma-based accelerators. Here Warp was augmented with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory code VisIt. The page about the Warp code on this site has links to VisIt and to a Physical Review Letters publication about the simulation.
WARP+POSINST LHC FODO ECE: The codes WARP and POSINST are often used together, as in this visualization of the electron-cloud effect in a focusing-defocusing (FODO) cell of a collider-ring arc at the LHC. The lower-left set of particles (mostly blue-green), represents the proton beam, moving from left to right (shown much magnified in the transverse dimensions). The middle set of particles (mostly red) represents the electrons in the chamber at the time instant when the beam traverses the defocusing quad.
HiPACE++ simulation of beam-driven plasma acceleration. A relativistic electron beam, the driver (turquoise, right), propagates in a plasma and expels the plasma electrons (blue) from its path. A “bubble” with no plasma electrons forms behind the driver, where a witness beam can be accelerated. The hosing instability causes the corkscrew shape of the driver.
Credit: M. Thévenet and A. Ferran Pousa, DESY.

WarpX simulation of laser-driven plasma accelerator

Warp simulation of two-color laser-plasma injection

State-of-the-art simulation for better particle accelerators

Accelerators are a vital part of the DOE-supported infrastructure of discovery science. Learn how we get the most out of them by using advanced computer techniques to optimize performance, ensure cost-effectiveness, and explore new ideas.

Computers have revolutionized not only our day-to-day lives, but the ways in which things of all kinds are designed. Through simulation and modeling, we can maximize performance, look for hidden trouble spots, and even find new ideas. For particle accelerators — among the most complex and in some cases among the largest high-tech items ever built — these tools have become indispensable.

In LBNL’s Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division, simulation efforts are coalescing, interacting, and finding synergies through the Beam, Plasma & Accelerator Simulation Toolkit (BLAST) Program. These efforts involve deep collaboration among physicists, applied mathematicians, and computer scientists. The results benefit a wide variety of fields extending across much of the DOE Office of Science research portfolio and beyond. More…