Halo formation in three-dimensional bunches with various phase space distributions

A realistic treatment of halo formation must take into account 3D beam bunches and 6D phase space distributions. We recently constructed, analytically and numerically, a new class of self-consistent 6D phase space stationary distributions, which allowed us to study the halo development mechanism without being obscured by the effect of beam redistribution. In this paper we consider nonstationary distributions and study how the halo characteristics compare with those obtained using the stationary distribution. We then discuss the effect of redistribution on the halo development mechanism. In contrast to bunches with a large aspect ratio, we find that the effect of coupling between the r and z planes is especially important as the bunch shape becomes more spherical.