Higher order mode analysis of the SPL cavities

Higher Order Modes (HOMs) can severely limit the operation of superconducting cavities in a linac with high beam current, high duty factor and complex pulse structure. The full HOM spectrum has to be analyzed in order to identify potentially dangerous modes already during the design phase and to define their damping requirements. For this purpose a dedicated beam simulation code focused on beam-HOMinteraction was developed, taking into account important effects like the HOMfrequency spread, beam input jitter, different chopping patterns, as well as klystron and alignment errors. Here, the code is used to investigate in detail the HOM properties of the cavities foreseen in the Superconducting Proton Linac (SPL) at CERN and their potential to drive beam instabilities. Special attention is given to HOM excitation by chopped pulses with high repetition rate.