Electromagnetic simulations of simple models of ferrite loaded kickers

The kickers are major contributors to the CERN SPS beam coupling impedance. As such, they may represent a limitation to increasing the SPS bunch current in the frame of an intensity upgrade of the LHC. In this paper, CST Particle Studio time domain electromagnetic simulations are performed to obtain the longitudinal and transverse impedances/wake potentials of simplified models of ferrite loaded kickers. The simulation results have been successfully compared with some existing analytical expressions. In the transverse plane, the dipolar and quadrupolar contributions to the wake potentials have been estimated from the results of these simulations. For some cases, simulations have also been benchmarked against measurements on PS kickers. It turns out that the large simulated quadrupolar contributions of these kickers could explain both the negative total (dipolar+quadrupolar) horizontal impedance observed in bench measurements and the positive horizontal tune shift measured with the SPS beam.