Design Alternatives Using Drift Tube Linac Type Structures for a NIMMS Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility

• Mohammadreza Khalvati (IPM)

The next generation of heavy ion therapy and research facilities is under study within the Next Ion Medical Machine Study (NIMMS) project at CERN. Deploying heavy ions like carbon in the treatment of cancerous tumors has the advantage of sharper dose distribution. In addition, due to higher relative biological effectiveness compared to proton or photon irradiation, carbon irradiation is more appropriate for the treatment of radioresistant tumors. Several experimental beam-lines are being considered for a wide range of research applications ranging from biomedical and nuclear physics studies to material research. The choice of the right chain of accelerating structures at low energies is particularly important for the overall beam quality. The Quasi-Alvarez(QA) Drift-Tube-Linac (DTL) structure, is a modified version of DTL optimized for the acceleration of heavier ions at higher frequencies. In this talk, different proposals for the NIMMS facility and the design of 5..7 MeV/u Carbon QA-DTL will be discussed.