Scaled electron experiments at the University of Maryland

Abstract The University of Maryland Electron Ring (UMER) and the Long Solenoid Experiment (LSE) are two electron machines that were designed explicitly to study the physics of space-charge-dominated beams. The operating parameters of these machines can be varied by choice of apertures and gun operating conditions to access a wide range of parameters that reproduce, on a scaled basis, the full nonlinear time-dependent physics that is expected in much costlier ion systems. Early operation of these machines has demonstrated the importance of the details of beam initial conditions in determining the downstream evolution. These machines have also been a convenient tested for benchmarking simulation codes such as WARP, and for development of several novel diagnostic techniques. We present our recent experience with multi-turn operation as well as recent longitudinal and transverse physics experiments and comparisons to simulation results. Development of novel diagnostic techniques such as time-dependent imaging using optical transition radiation and tomographic beam reconstruction are also described.