Advancing the CERN proton synchrotron multiturn extraction towards the high-intensity proton beams frontier

Abstract

Complementary to the physics research at the LHC, several fixed-target facilities receive beams from the LHC injector complex. To serve the fixed-target physics programme at the super proton synchrotron, high-intensity proton beams from the proton synchrotron are extracted using the multiturn extraction technique based on trapping parts of the beam in stable resonance islands. Considering the number of protons requested by future experimental fixed-target facilities, such as the proposed search for hidden particles experiment, the currently delivered beam intensities are insufficient. Experimental studies were conducted to optimize the multiturn extraction technique, pushing its capabilities in the domain of high-intensity proton beams, and their results are presented in this paper. The success of these studies led to the decision to discontinue the former continuous transfer and remove the related hardware from the accelerator. Therefore, the multiturn extraction becomes standard operational practice for delivering proton beams for the fixed-target physics programme at the CERN super proton synchrotron.