Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/2/b/solution

Write , with and . Differentiating twice gives
The coefficients must vanish for arbitrary initial phase . The sine coefficient gives
The conventional Courant-Snyder parameters normalize the phase so that ; any positive constant can be absorbed into the scale assigned to and . Explicitly, and preserve the orbit while making . With this convention,
The second expression is the Ermakov-Pinney equation for the beam envelope. It follows by substituting into the cosine coefficient.
The printed equation omits the factor multiplying . For a concrete counterexample, take the constant periodic focusing strength and the constant envelope . Then and solve . The correct envelope equation is , whereas the printed equation gives .
The associated invariant is
Thus fixes the phase-space ellipse of a trajectory; a beam's rms geometric emittance uses the corresponding second-moment convention. Factors of depend on whether emittance means ellipse area or area divided by and do not alter the envelope equation.

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