Recent Electron Cloud Studies in the SPS

It is important to qualify the present status of the SPS with respect to the electron cloud before the Long Shutdown of the CERN accelerator complex, which is taking place in 2013-2014. Therefore several electron cloud studies were performed during the 2012 run in order to get a full characterization of the behavior of the SPS with the LHCtype beams with 25 ns bunch spacing, which can be very sensitive to electron cloud effects. The collected information should allow to understand up to which extent this long period without beam operation - and the related interventions on the machine - will degrade the present conditioning state of the SPS, which has been achieved by “scrubbing” over several years. Several measurements with different beam conditions have been collected also on the electron cloud detectors installed in the machine. These results, in combination with detailed simulation studies, will provide the basis for defining strategies of electron cloud mitigation as required for the production of future high intensity and high brightness beams within the LHC Injectors Upgrade project.