Reduced forms of the Wigner distribution function for the numerical analysis of rotationally symmetric synchrotron radiation

Abstract

In an effort to provide a computationally convenient approach to the characterization of partially coherent synchrotron radiation in phase space, a thorough discussion of the minimum dimensionality of the Wigner distribution function for rotationally symmetric sources of arbitrary degrees of coherence is presented. It is found that perfectly coherent, perfectly incoherent and partially coherent sources may all be characterized by a three-dimensional reduced Wigner distribution function, and some special cases are discussed in which a two-dimensional reduced Wigner distribution function suffices. An application of the dimension-reducing formalism to the case of partially coherent radiation from a planar undulator and a circularly symmetric electron beam as can be found in linear accelerators is demonstrated. The photon distribution is convolved over a realistic electron bunch, and how the beta function, emittance and energy spread of the bunch affect the total degree of coherence of the radiation is inspected. Finally the cross spectral density is diagonalized and the eigenmodes of the partially coherent radiation are recovered. © 2014 International Union of Crystallography.