Accurate transfer maps for realistic beam-line elements: Straight elements

The behavior of orbits in charged-particle beam transport systems, including both linear and circular accelerators as well as final focus sections and spectrometers, can depend sensitively on nonlinear fringe-field and high-order-multipole effects in the various beam-line elements. The inclusion of these effects requires a detailed and realistic model of the interior and fringe fields, including their high spatial derivatives. A collection of surface fitting methods has been developed for extracting this information accurately from three-dimensional field data on a grid, as provided by various three-dimensional finite-element field codes. Based on these realistic field models, Lie or other methods may be used to compute accurate design orbits and accurate transfer maps about these orbits. Part I of this work presents a treatment of straight-axis magnetic elements, while part II will treat bending dipoles with large sagitta. An exactly soluble but numerically challenging model field is used to provide a rigorous collection of performance benchmarks.