Improved Longitudinal Blow-up and Shaving in the Booster

The low-intensity proton beam for p-Pb collisions in the LHC did not come back in the Booster at the beginning of 2013 anything like it had been set up at the end of 2012. In particular there were unexplained intensity fluctuations of ±100%. Although the root cause of the drift in performance was never established, its investigation revealed long-standing issues in the longitudinal plane which, when corrected, allowed single-bunch beams to be delivered with unprecedented reproducibility and control of both intensity and longitudinal emittance. The new approach was adopted for the ion run and subsequently for MDs at higher intensities, where it made possible a robust control of intensity at constant 6D phase space volume. Post-LS1, it may even provide a platform upon which to build a more exotic controlled longitudinal blow-up to generate higher intensity bunches with a flattened line density.