Numerical treatment of retarded radiation effects from high brightness electron beams

A form is given of the retarded electric field and magnetic induction generated by the motion of a charged particle that expresses these fields as integrals of the retarded charge density only, with kernels depending on the charge velocity and acceleration fields. In the case of a single pointlike charge, the usual Liénard-Wiechert fields follow very easily. The set of equations for the dynamics of particles in assigned electromagnetic fields with the self-consistent field is written and integrated. The code Retar for the dynamics of charged particles in external and self-consistent fields is described and a few examples of benchmark are proposed. As a physical application, the case of an electron beam moving in a bending magnetic dipole is examined, and the radiation produced analyzed, in order to characterize a therahertz radiation source.