The Jun 25 Working Group Meeting
EIC Commissioning Tool Working Group, June 2025 meeting
Presentation: Particle Accelerator Lattice Standard (PALS) By David
Outline: PALS is a community effort, which addresses long-standing fragmentation in accelerator lattice file formats and lack of interoperability between codes. Key take-away information:
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Standardizes lattice element names, parameters (e.g., K1), and structural definitions.
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Supports multiple output formats (YAML, JSON, Python, Julia).
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Not a simulation engine – solely for lattice description and interoperability.
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Multi-lab collaboration. Open source on GitHub; biweekly meetings held.
- Key Component of PALS: definition of element, attributes and metadata; Translation Layer for parsing, lattice expansion, coordinate computation
- Interfacing layer will be code-specific and should handled by each code author.
Discussion: Integration with EIC Machine Portal
[Yue] outlined the EIC virtual beam environment plan: PALS is considered in developing machine portal for integrating multiple design/simulation codes (e.g., MAD-X, Elegant, BMAD, Xsuite). Adding metadata is important for EIC commissioning, including survey data, magnetic-current conversion, instrumentation calibration data.
[Scott] emphasized handling parameter dependencies like magnet current mappings, as a magnet may be controlled by multiple power supply and magnets powered by the same power supplies. Also physics to engineering parameters should be converted freely.
[Jean-Luc] explained that higher-level beam dynamics inputs (e.g., particle distribution or field maps) are beyond PALS and may fall under separate standards
[Tong] discussed how FRIB manages IB curves: Live calibration of field-to-current relationships using beam data. Data stored and maintained by high-level physics applications.
[Michael] described APS-U approach: Physics parameters used in modeling; translation to engineering units is done via separate service. The live system only updates emittance calculations every 30s but is not used for tuning.