Bursts of coherent synchrotron radiation in electron storage rings: A dynamical model

Evidence of coherent synchrotron radiation has been reported recently at the electron storage rings of several light source facilities. The main features of the observations are (i) a radiation wavelength short compared to the nominal bunch length, and (ii) a coherent signal showing recurrent bursts of duration much shorter than the radiation damping time, but with spacing equal to a substantial fraction of the damping time. We present a model of beam longitudinal dynamics that reproduces these features.