Misconception Regarding Conventional Coupling of Fields and Particles in XFEL Codes

TL;DR

This paper clarifies the misconception in coupling fields and particles in XFEL codes, emphasizing the importance of time synchronization conventions and their impact on electron beam behavior and radiation production.

Contribution

It demonstrates the significance of Einstein's time order in electron beam dynamics and provides a detailed Lorentz's approach to reconcile simulations with experimental results.

Findings

Electron beam microbunching fronts realign after a kick in the ultrarelativistic limit.

Re-examining simulation results with proper time synchronization resolves previous discrepancies.

Coherent undulator radiation can be produced without suppression in the kicked direction.

Abstract

Maxwell theory is usually treated in the lab frame under the standard time order (light-signal clock synchronization). Particle tracking in the lab frame usually treats time as an independent variable. Then, the evolution of electron beams is treated according to the absolute time convention (non-standard clock synchronization). This point has never received attention in the accelerator community. There are two ways of coupling fields and particles. The first, Lorentz's way, consists in `translating' Maxwell's electrodynamics to the absolute time world-picture. The second, Einstein's way, consists in `translating' particle tracking results to the electromagnetic world-picture. Conventional particle tracking shows that the electron beam direction changes after a transverse kick, while the orientation of the microbunching fronts stays unvaried. We show that under Einstein's time order, in the ultrarelativistic asymptote the orientation of the planes of simultaneity is always perpendicular to the electron beam velocity. This allows for the production of coherent undulator radiation from a modulated electron beam in the kicked direction without suppression. We hold a recent FEL study at the LCLS as experimental evidence of microbunching wavefront readjusting after a large kick. In a previous paper we quantitatively described this result invoking the aberration of light, corresponding to Lorentz's way of coupling fields and particles. Here we give details of the Lorentz's approach used in that paper. We also demonstrate that an `inverse translation' of particle tracking results to the standard time order resolves puzzles related with the strong qualitative disagreement between simulations and experiments. Previous simulation results in ultrarelativistic electron beam physics should be reexamined in the light of the difference between particle tracking and electromagnetic world-pictures.