Core-halo issues for a very high intensity beam

The relevance of classical parameters like beam emittance and envelope used to describe a particle beam is questioned in case of a high intensity accelerator. In the presence of strong space charge effects that affect the beam differently following its density, the much less dense halo part behaves differently from the much denser core part. A method for precisely determining the core-halo limit is proposed, that allows characterizing the halo and the core independently. Results in 1D case are given and discussed. Expected developments extending the method to 2D, 4D, or 6D phase spaces are examined. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.