Beam dynamics in a high brightness linac for short wavelength SASE-FEL experiments

Short wavelength SASE-FEL requires generation and transport up to the undulator entrance of low emittance (similar to 1-2 mm mrad) high peak current (similar to 1-3 kA) electron beams with energy higher than 1 GeV. The propagation of such a high brightness beam takes place in a transition regime from space charge to emittance dominated dynamics, as the beam energy increases. In addition, in downstream magnetic compressor devices where the peak current increases up to kA range, the transition may occur again. Under these conditions, the electron beam has to be properly matched to the linac accelerating sections in order to keep under control emittance oscillations driven by residual space charge effects. Generalized invariant envelope matching conditions are discussed in this paper, showing that an equilibrium between RF focusing forces and space charge/emittance defocusing forces can be attained without any additional external focusing along the linac (no quadrupoles), thus reducing alignment problems and mitigating emittance dilutions due to misalignments and beam parameter jitters.