The intensity of the HL-LHC beam will be twice that of LHC. Hence, an upgrade of the LHC injection kickers (MKIs) is necessary for HL-LHC to avoid excessive beam induced heating of the MKIs. In addition, any newly installed MKI magnet would limit HL-LHC operation for a few hundred hours due to dynamic vacuum activity. Extensive studies have been carried out to identify solutions to address these problems and they have been implemented in an upgraded LHC injection kicker magnet (MKI Cool): the MKI Cool was installed in the LHC during the 2022-23 Year End Technical Stop. Magnet heating has been reduced by redistributing a significant portion of the beam induced power deposition from the ferrite yoke to a ferrite loaded RF Damper, which is not at pulsed high voltage, and by water cooling of the damper. Furthermore, a surface coating, to mitigate dynamic vacuum activity, has been applied. This paper discusses the upgrades, presents results from the initial operational experience, and compares the predicted and ‘measured’ beam induced power deposition.

The High Intensity ECN3 (HI-ECN3) study project aims to increase the intensity of the proton beam delivered to a new experimental facility housed in the ECN3 underground cavern in CERN’s North Area up to the ~4e+13 ppp (protons per pulse) and up to ~4e+19 POT (protons on target) per year. The increase necessitates upgrades of the primary beam transfer lines coming from SPS directly to the new Target Complex upstream of ECN3. In this work we describe the modifications to the primary beam line optics that allow the transfer of the beam to the HI-ECN3 facility in two scenarios: shared (beam is split between the three existing production targets) and dedicated (beam goes directly to the target serving ECN3). An optimization study is presented to reduce the sensitivity of the beam optics to errors and minimize the effects of the beam’s interaction with material when transiting the existing target area between TT24 and P42, whilst respecting the different constraints needed to share the beam between ECN3 and the rest of the North Area and permit a vertical trajectory bump around the target serving EHN1.

The CERN Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) was upgraded within the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project and delivers a large variety of high-intensity beams for fixed target experiments and high-brightness beams for collisions at the LHC. In the context of the Physics Beyond Colliders (PBC) study and of a possible upgrade of the ISOLDE experimental area, intensities up to 1500×1e+10 particles per ring are considered. High-intensity tests have thus been performed during machine development studies in 2023 injecting the nominal or higher beam current from Linac4. In this contribution, the intensity reach and the main performance limitations for the production of high-intensity beams in the PSB are presented. The results are compared to numerical simulations.

The LHC Injectors Upgrade project at CERN optimized the injection accelerator chain to deliver proton intensities per bunch of 2.3e+11 ppb. Throughout 2023, the LHC was filled with up to 2464 bunches per beam using a hybrid injection scheme, involving up to 236 bunches per injection, with a maximum intensity per bunch of 1.6e+11 ppb. These beam parameters already revealed significant beam losses at the primary collimator in Point 7 during injection, with large fluctuations from fill to fill, limiting in several cases the machine performance. This contribution analyses the performance of the LHC during injection and discusses possible improvements.

LHC injection kickers (MKI) are pulsed at high voltage to achieve magnetic field pulses with fast rise time. The MKIs contain a beam screen to help shield their ferrite yoke from beam induced heating. However, additional means of mitigating beam induced heating, for the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) era, are required. To achieve this, the MKIs are sequentially being upgraded to low impedance versions (MKI Cool) with several critical components including (a) a 3-m long alumina tube, installed in the magnet aperture, used to hold screen conductors that help shield the magnet yokes from beam induced heating; and (b) an RF damper which moves beam induced power from the ferrite yoke to a ferrite cylinder which is part of the damper. This paper discusses the measurements carried out to qualify these components for installation in an MKI Cool. In addition, for the alumina tube, the interpretation of the measurement data is discussed together with the optimisation of the angular orientation of the tube in the magnet aperture.