AD Consolidation for operation beyond 2010

The Antiproton Decelerator (AD), which started up for physics in 2000 and today supplies low-energy antiprotons to the ATRAP, ALPHA, ASACUSA and ACE experiments is based on the ACOL machine from which it still retains most of the components. ACOL construction was completed in 1986 at a total cost of approximately 80 MCHF (excluding infrastructure) which today would correspond to a value of around 160 MCHF. During recent years, a reduction of maintenance and modernisation has been unavoidable due to budgetary restraints. In order to identify the resources needed for continued AD operation beyond 2010 with a reasonably low risk of failures and to avoid increasing maintenance and repair costs, a study has been conducted involving groups from the AB, AT and TS departments. Analysis of breakdown risks, identification of items and costs for consolidation has been done as well as a risk score classification. To be noted is the relatively modest cost of the proposed items in view of the value of the facility and in comparison to the cost of the manpower necessary for running AD. The two scenarios under consideration are (1): Continued operation until the end of 2012 with no major modifications to the AD machine and (2): Operation until the end of 2016 with the possibility to implement the proposed ELENA upgrade. In both scenarios, AEGIS can carry out the measurement that it has proposed to make. The success-oriented timeline of the A EGIS proposal, which foresees installation of the experiment in 2009 and 2010, commissioning and first data taking in 2011 and carrying-out of a first gravitational measurement with antihydrogen in the following year is compatible with a scenario of AD operation only until the end of 2012. However, running the AD until 2016 would in addition allow going beyond the initial validation of the technique and would permit a more thorough investigation of the systematic errors in order to reach the initial physics goal (a measurement of the gravitational interaction of antihydrogen to 1%) and perhaps improve on it, as well as a number of ancillary physics measurements which are interesting and publishable in their own right.