Harmonic cavities and longitudinal beam stability in electron storage rings

Harmonic cavities have been used in storage rings to increase beam lifetime and Landau damping by lengthening the bunch. The need for lifetime increase is particularly great in the present generation of low to medium energy synchrotron light sources where the small transverse beam sizes lead to relatively short lifetimes from large-angle intrabeam (Touschek) scattering. We review the beam dynamics of harmonic radiofrequency (RF) systems and discuss effects on longitudinal beam stability.