Design of low energy ring(s)

During the last two years, several upgrades of the initial baseline scenario were studied with the aim of increasing the average intensity of ion beams in the accelerator chain of the Beta Beam complex. This is the reason why the Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) specifications were reconsidered many times [1], [2], [3].General considerations on the optical design were presented at the Beta Beam Task Meetings held at CERN and at Saclay in 2005 [4]. More detailed beam optics studies were performed during the next months. Lattices, RF system parameters, multi-turn injection scheme, fast extraction, closed orbit correction and chromaticity correction systems were proposed for different versions of the RCS [5], [6], [7].Finally, the RCS specifications have stabilized in November 2006 after the fourth Beta Beam Task Meeting when it was decided to fix the maximum magnetic rigidity of ion beams to 14.47 T.m (3.5 GeV equivalent proton energy) and to adopt a ring physical radius of 40 m in order to facilitate injection in the CERN PS.The present report describes this RCS new design which is based on the results of the previous studies and which fulfils all updated requirements.