Cavity misalignment and off-axis field effects on transverse beam dynamics in Spallation Neutron Source superconducting linac

For highly relativistic beams, transverse motion due to off-axis fields is not a concern because the transverse RF magnetic and electric forces for off-axis particles cancel each other. Since the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will accelerate moderately relativistic H/sup -/ particle beam, transverse motion due to off-axis fields has to be checked. Misaligned cavities have physically the same transverse effect on particles moving on axis as off-axis particles passing through perfectly aligned cavities. The main purpose of this paper is to calculate the impact on the transverse motion of the beam from the superconducting cavity (SC) misalignment in SNS. Quadrupole misalignment is then added to obtain a more general statement for the transverse behavior of the beam under alignment errors. For this issue, we use on-axis and off-axis electromagnetic field data from Superfish to calculate beam properties of the SNS beam all along the SC linac with misaligned cavities.