CERN, Geneva
Linac4 is a 160 MeV, 40 mA H- linear accelerator which will be the source of particles for all CERN proton accelerators from 2013. Its construction has started in 2008, as part of a program for the progressive replacement or upgrade of the LHC injectors during the next decade. Linac4 will initially inject into the PS Booster and at a later stage into a 4 GeV Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL), which could ultimately be upgraded to high duty cycle operation. For this reason accelerating structures, rf hardware and shielding of Linac4 are dimensioned for higher duty from the initial phase. Linac4 is normal-conducting, 80 m long and consists of an rf volume ion source, an RFQ, a beam chopping section and a cascade of three different types of 352 MHz accelerating structures. Its main design requirements are high reliability, high beam brightness and low beam loss. The accelerator will be housed in an underground tunnel on the CERN site, which can eventually be extended to the SPL, with equipment installed in a surface building above. The main parameters, the status of the main components, the planning, the project organisation and the civil engineering infrastructure are presented.
CERN, Geneva
CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette
The first stage of acceleration in Linac4, the new 160 MeV CERN H- injector, is a 352 MHz, 3 m long Radiofrequency Quadrupole (RFQ) Accelerator. The RFQ will capture a 70 mA, 45 keV beam from the rf source and accelerate it to 3 MeV, an energy suitable for chopping and injecting the beam in a conventional Drift Tube Linac. Although the RFQ will be initially operated at low duty cycle (0.1%), its design is compatible with higher duty cycle (10%) as the front-end for a possible high-intensity upgrade of the CERN linac facility. The RFQ will be of the brazed-copper design and will be built and assembled at CERN. Beam dynamics design allows for a compact structure made of a single resonant unit. Field symmetry is ensured by fixed tuners placed along the structure. In this paper we present the rf and mechanical design, the beam dynamics and the sensitivity to fabrication and to rf errors.
CERN, Geneva
INFN/LNL, Legnaro, Padova
The Drift Tube Linac (DTL) for the new linear accelerator Linac4 at CERN will accelerate H- ion beams of up to 40mA average pulse current from 3 to 50MeV. It is designed to operate at 352.2MHz and at duty cycles of up to 10%, if required by future physics programmes. The accelerating field is 3.2MeV/m over the entire length. Permanent magnet quadrupoles are used as focusing elements. The 3 DTL cavities consist of 2, 4 and 4 segments of about 1.8m each, are equipped with 35, 41 and 29 drift tubes respectively, and are stabilized with post-couplers. Several new features have been incorporated in the basic design. The electro-magnetic design has been refined in order to reduce peak field levels in critical areas. The mechanical design aims at reducing the complexity of the mechanical structure and of the adjustment procedure. Drift tubes and holders on the tanks that are machined to tight tolerances do not require adjustment mechanisms like screws or bellows for drift tube positioning. A scaled cold model, an assembly model and a full-scale prototype of the first half tank have been constructed to validate the design principles. The results of metrological and rf tests are presented.
CERN, Geneva
As part of the upgrade of the LHC injector complex at CERN, the construction of a 4 GeV Superconducting Proton Linac (the SPL, in fact an H- accelerator) is planned to begin in 2012. Depending upon physics requests, it should be upgradeable to 5 GeV and multi-MW beam power at a later stage. The construction of Linac4, its low energy front end, has started at the beginning of 2008. A full project proposal with a cost estimate for the low power version of the SPL aimed at improving LHC performance has to be ready for mid-2011. As a first step towards that goal, essential machine parameters like rf frequency, cooling temperature and beam current have recently been revisited and plans have been drawn for designing and testing critical components. The SPL parameters are reviewed in the context of the CERN plans for upgrading the LHC injectors, and the foreseen developments during the next years are described.
CERN, Geneva
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.
CERN, Geneva
In its June 2007 session the CERN Council has approved the White Paper, which includes construction of a 160 MeV H- linear accelerator called LINAC4, and the study of a 4 GeV Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL). LINAC4 will initially replace LINAC2 as the injector to the PS Booster, improving its performance up to the levels required for producing the ultimate LHC luminosity. In a later stage, LINAC4 is intended to become the front-end of SPL in a renewed injection chain for the LHC, which could be progressively constructed over the next decade. After briefly introducing the motivations and layout of the new injector chain, the talk will present the characteristics of the new linacs and give an overview of their main technical features and the R&D activities pursued within the HIPPI Joint Research Activity.
CERN, Geneva
MPQ, Garching, Munich
Linac 4 is a 160 MeV H- linac which will become the new injector for CERN's proton accelerator chain. The linac will consist of 4 different rf structures, namely RFQ, DTL, CCDTL and PIMS running at 352.2 MHz with 2 Hz repetition rate and 0.4 ms pulse length. A chopper line ensures clean injection into the PS Booster. The combination of high frequency and a high-current, low-emittance beam calls for a compact design where minimum space is left for diagnostics. On the other hand, diagnostics is needed for setting up and tuning of the machine during both commissioning and operation. A measurement strategy and the corresponding choice of the diagnostic devices and their specific use in Linac4 are discussed in this paper.