Correlation of photon beam motion with vacuum chamber cooling on the NSLS x-ray ring

The NSLS x-ray ring exhibits a direct correlation between photon beam motion, and distortion of the ring vacuum chamber induced by fluctuations in the cooling system. We have made long term measurements of photon beam vertical position, accelerator vacuum chamber motion, process water temperatures, and angular motions of the magnets around one superperiod of the NSLS x-ray ring. Short term transients in water temperature cause deflection of the ring vacuum chamber which have in turn been shown to induce very small angular rotations of the magnets, on the order of 10 μrad. A larger and more difficult to correct effect is the drift in beam position over the course of a fill. This problem has been shown to be related to the thermal gradients that develop across the vacuum chamber which, as a consequence of the configuration of the chamber cooling, depend upon stored current. Orbit simulations based upon the measured rotations are in agreement with the observed beam motions, and reveal that certain patterns of correlated motions of the magnets can produce much larger errors than random motion or concerted motion of all the magnets. During the course of these measurements global orbit feedback was installed, and found to significantly reduce the orbit errors which could not be corrected at their source.