ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the basics of accelerator physics with the topic of the transverse dynamics of charged particles. It provides the Maxwell equations with an emphasis on their systems of units, focusing in particular on SI and Gaussian-cgs systems. An example of a simple accelerator is a thermionic gun, in which thermionic emission from the cathode generates electrons that are accelerated across a high voltage gap to the anode. Controlling the beam shape and beam quality in high density electron guns often requires the use of an accompanying solenoid magnetic field. The particle trajectory in an accelerator is initially defined by dipole magnets, therefore a curvilinear coordinate system is best used to describe the motion of the particles. The motion of a charged particle with respect to the reference orbit and along the curvilinear abscissa, and influenced by the magnetic fields of dipole magnets and quadrupole magnets, is given by the linear Hill’s equations.
