Thor-scsi-lib strives to reimplement the physics model of Tracy-2 in modern C++. Furthermore it provides a python interface.
Thor-scsi-lib and Tracy-2 are self consistent symplectic integrators. Tracy-2 was initially provided as an on-line model to guide the commissioning of ALS in the early 1990s. Thus, its beam dynamics model was "automatically" validated; i.e., stood tall. As a side effect, it came in handy for the PEP-II conceptual design at SLAC. When it was realised that the IR regions for ditto could not be modelled with MAD6 – because it could not handle torsion – when the vertical bends were included. Similarly, it was also used for the conceptual design of: SLS, SOLEIL, ALBA, NSLS-II, MAX IV, SLS 2.0, and DIAMOND-II. And subsequently as on-line models for: SLS, DIAMOND, and NSLS-II. Besides, it's also the core physics engine for Accelerator Toolbox.
The pyhsics model is described in
Beam Dynamics Model:
J. Bengtsson, W. Rogers, T. Nicholls A CAD Tool for Linear Optics Design: A Controls Engineer's Geometric Approach to Hill's Equation 10.48550/arXiv.2109.15066 (2021).
A historical overview is given below.
- (GNU compatible) C/C++ compiler
- GNU autoconf/automake environment and libtool.
- GNU Scientific Library (GSL): https://www.gnu.org/software/gsl.
- Armadillo (for linear algebra): http://arma.sourceforge.net.
- Python https://www.python.org/ for the python interface
For installation instructions see install.rst
python3 examples/tst.pyPython interface:
Guidelines & automated regression testing bootstrapped by Pierre Schnizer:
P. Schnizer, W. Khail, J. Bengtsson Small Talk on AT IPAC 2022 TUPOST029.
Initial demo/prototype & guidelines by Jan Chrin, PSI, 2017:
J. Chrin Channel Access from Cython (and other Cython use cases) EPICS Collaboration Meeting 2017.
Model Server:
P. Schnizer, J. Bengtsson, T. Birke, L. Ramirez Online Model Developments for BESSY II and MLS IPAC 2021 WEPAB317.
Use Cases:
J. Bengtsson, T. Nicholls, W. Rogers A CAD Tool for Linear Optics Design: A Use Case Approach IPAC 2021 MOPAB047.
J. Bengtsson, M. Davidsaver An Accelerator Physics - Software Engineering Collaboration EPICS Collaboration Meeting EPICS 2016.
Beam Dynamics Model:
J. Bengtsson, W. Rogers, T. Nicholls A CAD Tool for Linear Optics Design: A Controls Engineer's Geometric Approach to Hill's Equation 10.48550/arXiv.2109.15066 (2021).
J. Bengtsson, D. Briggs, G. Portmann A Linear Control Theory Analysis of Transverse Coherent Bunch Instabilities Feedback Systems (The Control Theory Approach to Hill's Equation) CBP Tech Note-026, PEP-II AP Note 28-93 (1993).
Author: Johan Bengtsson
Having implemented DA-Pascal in the early 1990s, see ref. below, based on a recursive approach – i.e., automatable by an universal Turing machine (any modern digital computer) – for nonlinear beam dynamics analysis by utilizing Lie series on a beam line object; automated to arbitrary order by Truncated Power Serias Algegra (TPSA). In particular, implemented as a Pascal module/software library by extending the standard procedures & functions for N. Wirth's Pascal-S compiler/interpreter. Hence, in 1994, rather than participating in a "talkshop" for the CLASSIC collaboration, e.g.:
C. Iselin Experience with the Classic Library in MAD Version 9 ICAP 1998.
We instead prototyped & implemented a C++ beam line class based on a polymorphic number object with reference counting. For which the latter mechanism provides for garbage collection; since it is not provided by C++, vs. e.g. Lisp & Smalltalk.
To quote Forest in:
E. Forest, F. Schmidt, E. McIntosh Introduction to the Polymorphic Tracking Code CERN-SL-2002-044 (AP), KEK-Report 2002-3 (2002).
Therefore the proper implementation of a fibre bundle was a sine qua non, non-negotiable point, which Forest and Bengtsson insisted upon in the early days of pre-CLASSIC C++ collaborations. A quick look at CLASSIC (MAD9) shows that the CLASSIC structure does not satisfy this condition. In particular, patches are derived from the beam element class and are thus of the same nature as the element. Patches are generally a figment of one’s mathematical imagination, useful tools, but they are not physical elements which can be ordered from a factory. We believe this is a major flaw in the CLASSIC design. It is perhaps the result of placing too much emphasis on implementation using C++ capabilities, rather than the basic mathematical framework. We believe this accounts for the excessive number of classes and the complexity of CLASSIC (MAD9).
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Here, in PTC, as well as in the original C++ classes that Bengtsson dreamt up in collaboration with Forest, the geometrical nature of the fibre reigns supreme. The next step is to introduce a magnet, namely EL and/or ELP. The propagator of the full fibre, if well-defined, inherits properties from the chart itself. In other words a magnet exists first as a piece of material junk. It can be rotated, translated and drawn. The chart provides the connection between this magnet/junk and the external three dimensional space. Obviously this exists independently of the existence of single particle propagators associated to EL and/or ELP. It is a remarkable mathematical feature that these propagators, under certain conditions, inherit the transformational properties of the chart. Of course PTC is set up to take advantage of this.
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TRACYII was based on the belief that a dumb user interface should be built on the foundation of a smart user interface. In this way complex situations could always be handled. This was so successful that, in the 2 years of the PEPB design (SLAC), Robin and Bengtsson recompiled TRACYII no more than 2 or 3 times.
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In the case of TRACYII, this was realized by separating the lattice input file (dumb user) from the command input file (smart user). This idea, originally from Nishimura, was turned into an uncompromising product by Bengtsson. In PTC the same can be achieved by stripping all the core routines from any dumb user idiosyncracies. One example common to TRACYII and PTC is the absence of quadrupoles in the core.
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In addition, as we shall see, if some user’s algorithm uses PTC extended definition of the ray to compute the equivalent of the “synchrotron integrals,” then it will be correctly computed under any possible mispowering and misaligning of the elements. PTC is a faithful representation of a part of nature, just as Seurat’s painting is a faithful representation of some aspect of a scene. In addition, just as pointillism adds to the natural setting a seemingly unnatural element, PTC adds properties to the ray being tracked which do not exist in nature. In the case of PTC, thanks to a polymorphic type first dreamt up by Bengtsson, the electron carries with itself a potential Taylor Series whose variable space is nearly infinite.
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My views have been, at least since the C++ business got underway, that the flow through the magnet must be elevated to the status of a mathematical object. And then, it must find its counterpart on the silicon canvas, whether painted in C++ or any other language. Polymorphism, Bengtsson’s pointillism, will take care of the rest. This is achieved by a local “s” -dependent theory which is shaped around individual magnets. The global system is then patched together. The mathematicians gave us the tools to manipulate this object: the fibre bundle. PTC simply creates a restricted fibre bundle on the computer, one which is relevant to particle accelerators. This structure is incompatible with standard Courant-Snyder theory and other similar constructs like Sand’s integrals.
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Besides the two individuals whose names appear on this paper and Aimin Xiao who collaborated on the very first prototype, I would like to thank Johan Bengtsson (of parts unknown) for convincing me that, at least in C++, one could go ahead and make a reasonable job of polymorphism and fibre bundles.
I.e., eventually, he re-implemented the strategy/approach in Fortran-90; since by then that grammar had been extended to support operator overloading.
The symplectic integrator for realistic modeling of magnetic lattices for ring-based synchrotrons was initially implemented as a Pascal module/beam dynamics software library, by the author 1990, as an on-line model to guide the ALS commissioning. In particular, care was taken for the software architecture & resulting records/modules – akin to objects although not explicitly supported by the artificial language grammar – to reflect the structure of the mathematical objects describing the underlying beam dynamics model.
Hence, the code was also benchmarked & calibrated as part of the ALS commissioning:
J. Bengtsson, M. Meddahi Modeling of Beam Dynamics and Comparison with Measurements for the Advanced Light Source (ALS) EPAC 1994.
Malika Meddahi was a postdoc at ALS who did her thesis at CERN (for which she received the Prix Daniel Guinier in France that year):
Effets faisceau-faisceau dans le collisionneur protons-antiprotons du SPS CERN-SL-91-30-BI (1991)
The resulting C code, see below, has now been re-factored by introducing a C++ beam line class; i.e., to recover the transparency & simplicity of the original beam dynamics model.
Remark: Although the entire beam dynamics model had to be replaced & the model/code/"approach" re-architectured & structured – for a reusable approach – as a Pascal beam dynamics libary (standard practise in software engineering), the code was named Tracy-2, i.e., inspired by the, somewhat archaic demo/prototype/concept Tracy:
H. Nishimura TRACY, A Tool for Accelerator Design and Analysis EPAC 1988
for which the beam dynamics model was based on the linearized quadratic Hamiltonian:
for linear optics design. I.e., for a bare lattice with mid-plane symmetry.
E.g. by not having figured out/mastered how to pass records (structures in C) as function/procedure variables – vs. scalars only – for the Pascal-S compiler/interpreter to the beam dynamics library. The API was rather poor/sloppy. I.e., not scalable and thus ill suited to cope with the complexity of a realistic model. As expressed by Forest in the title of:
E. Forest A Hamiltonian-Free Description of Single Particle Dynamics for Hopelessly Complex Periodic Systems J. Math. Phys. 31 (1990).
Hence, the one thing we did find useful for a realistic on-line model – having already implemented an on-line model as a sci fellow for LEAR, CERN, in the late 1980s and before that having worked as a teaching assistent at the dept. of Software Engineering, Lund Inst. of Tech, Sweden (next to MAX Lab) while pursuing a MsSci EE – and adopted for ALS. Was the implementation of the beam dynamics model as an extension of the standard procedures & functions for the Pascal-S compiler/interpreter by N. Wirth (implemented/coded in it's native grammar); architected as a Pascal software library/module:
M. Rees, D. Robson Practical Compiling with Pascal-S (Addison-Wesley, 1988).
S. Pemberton, M. Daniels The P4 Compiler and Interpreter (1982).
N. Wirth PASCAL-S: A Subset and its Implementation Institut für Informatik, ETH, Zürich (1975).
Pascal-P6 https://sourceforge.net/projects/pascal-p6.
In other words, since 1994 our toolkit – althout it based on one model – the Hamiltonian for a charged particle in an external electromagnetic field & a symplectic intrator for magnetic multipoles & insertion devices for ditto:
J. Bengtsson The Sextupole Scheme for the Swiss Light Source (SLS): An Analytic Approach SLS 9/97 (1997).
It was implemented as two different codes: Tracy-2 & Thor. Hence, eventually, these were consolidated by using C++ templates for the polymorphich number object and beam line class; aka Tracy-2,3.
The symplectic integrator for RADIA kick maps:
P. Elleaume A New Approach to the Electron Beam Dynamics in Undulators and Wigglers EPAC 1992.
was implemented by Laurent Nadolski, SOLEIL, 2002.
The original Pascal library/code was machine translated to C and re-used to implement a model server for the SLS commissioning:
M. Böge Update on TRACY-2 Documentation SLS Tech Note SLS-TME-TA-1999-0002 (1999).
M. Böge, J. Chrin A CORBA Based Client-Server Model for Beam Dynamics Applications ICALEPCS 1999.
with p2c.
Similarly, James Rowland re-used the C version to implement a Virtual Accelerator interfaced to EPICS as a Virtual Input Output Controller (VIOC):
M. Heron, J. Rowland, et al Progress on the Implementation of the DIAMOND Control System ICALEPCS 2005.
Besides, a subset of the internal numerical engine was manually translated to C and re-used for:
A. Terebilo Accelerator Toolbox for MATLAB SLAC-PUB-8732 (2001).