Guiding-center Vlasov-Maxwell description of intense beam propagation through a periodic focusing field

This paper provides a systematic derivation of a guiding-center kinetic model that describes intense beam propagation through a periodic focusing lattice with axial periodicity length S, valid for sufficiently small phase advance (say, σ0 and κ_{y sf}>0, and the model is readily accessible to direct analytical investigation. Similar smooth-focusing Vlasov-Maxwell descriptions are widely used in the accelerator physics literature, often without a systematic justification, and the present analysis is intended to place these models on a rigorous, yet physically intuitive, foundation.