• G. Bellodi, M. Eshraqi, J.-B. Lallement, S. Lanzone, A.M. Lombardi, E.Zh. Sargsyan
  CERN, Geneva
• R.D. Duperrier, D. Uriot
  CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette

Linac4 is a normal conducting H^- linac to be built at CERN as a new injector to the PS Booster and later on as a front end of a Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL). The layout consists of a H^- rf source, a magnetic LEBT, a RFQ (accelerating the beam from 45 keV to 3 MeV), a chopper line, a conventional Drift Tube Linac (from 3 MeV to 50 MeV), a Coupled Cavity Drift Tube Linac (from 50 MeV to 100 MeV) and a pi-mode structure (PIMS, from 100 to 160 MeV), all operating at a frequency of 352 MHz. End-to-end beam dynamics simulations have been carried out in parallel with the codes PATH and TRACEWIN to optimise the design and performance of the accelerator and at the same time to guarantee a cross-check of the results found. An extensive statistical campaign of longitudinal error studies (static and dynamic) was then launched for validation of the proposed design and to assess the maximum level of RF jitter/inaccuracies (in both phase and amplitude) the system can tolerate before beam quality at injection in the PS Booster - and later in the SPL- is compromised.