Chaos in Accelerators

Chaos is a general phenomenon in nonlinear dynamical systems. Accelerators--storage rings in particular--in which particles are stored for 10{sup 10} revolutions constitute a particularly intricate nonlinear dynamical system. (In comparison, the earth has revolved around the sun for only 10{sup 9} turns.) Storage rings therefore provide an ideal testing ground for chaos physics. In fact, it is the chaos phenomenon that imposes one of the key design criteria for these accelerators. One might arguably say that the demise of the Superconducting Super Collider project originated from a misjudgement in its chaos analysis at one point along its design path, leading to its first substantial cost escalation. This talk gives an elementary introduction to the study of chaos in accelerators