Beams dynamics optimisation of LINAC4 structures for increased operational flexibility

Linac4 is a new 160 MeV, 40 mA pulsed beam current H- accelerator which will be the source of particles for all proton accelerators at CERN. Construction started in October 2008, and beam commissioning of the 3 MeV front-end is scheduled for early next year. A baseline design of the linac beam dynamics was completed 2 years ago and validated by a systematic campaign of transverse and longitudinal error studies to assess tolerance limits and machine activation levels. Recent studies have been mainly focused on optimising this design to achieve both a smoother performance for nominal beam conditions and to gain operational flexibility for non-nominal scenarios. These include a review of the chopper beam dynamics design, a re-definition of the DTL and CCDTL inter-tank regions and a study of operational schemes for reduced beam currents (either permanent or in pulse-to-pulse mode). These studies have been carried out in parallel to first specifications for a beam commissioning strategy of the linac and its low-energy front-end.