Vlasov treatment of coherent synchrotron radiation from arbitrary planar orbits

We study the influence of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) on particle bunches traveling on arbitrary planar orbits between parallel conducting plates which represent the vacuum chamber. Our goal is to follow the time evolution of the phase space distribution by solving the Vlasov–Maxwell equations in the time domain. This should provide simulations with lower numerical noise than the macro-particle method, and allow one to study such issues as emittance degradation and microbunching due to CSR in bunch compressors. The fields excited by the bunch are computed in the laboratory frame from a new formula that leads to much simpler computations than usual methods. The nonlinear Vlasov equation, formulated in the interaction picture, is integrated in the beam frame by approximating the Perron–Frobenius operator. For application to a chicane bunch compressor we take steps to deal with energy chirp.