Accelerator Modelling and Advanced Simulations (AMAS)

Particle accelerators have helped to enable some of the most remarkable discoveries of the 20th century and are one of the bases of PSI. Accelerator-based systems have now been proposed to address problems of great importance to our society, which are basically related to energy, biology and the environment. Given the importance of particle accelerators, it is imperative that the most advanced numerical methods and high performance computing tools be brought to bear on their design, optimization, and operation of such machines.

Computational accelerator physics which qualifies to perform system simulations or start to end simulations, are very demanding in terms of: interdisciplinary team work (physics, numerical mathematics and computational science) and computational resources. The AMAS group is part of the LSM, the Laboratory for Scientific Computing and Modeling situated in the NES division.

Mission

Bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative modeling by combining and extending the latest developments in:

  • Accelerator-Physics
  • Numerical-Modelling and
  • High Performance Computer Science
AMAS performs research in the area of accelerator system simulation, participates in educational efforts, maintains/establishes national and international collaboration. AMAS applies the developed methods to PSI's existing and future machines which in turn provide benchmarks for our methods.

AMAS designs and adapt simulation tools for the needs of PSI with respect to realistic accelerator system simulation. Research in the area of methods and algorithms in a general beam dynamic context to fulfill the special modeling needs of current and future PSI accelerator projects. Actively use the simulation tools in order to calibrate the used model, and better understand the existing PSI machines. Participate in new projects at PSI and in the community.

Educational effort in hosting summer students and providing masters and PhD. thesis primary at the EPFL and ETHZ, in computational accelerator physics including aspects of high performance computing, within the thematic framework of multi-scale modeling.