Benchmark of the SixTrack-Fluka Active Coupling Against the SPS Scrapers Burst Test

The SPS scrapers are a key ingredient for the clean injection into the LHC: they cut off halo particles quite close to the beam core (e.g.~3.5 sigma) just before extraction, to minimise the risk for quenches. The improved beam parameters as envisaged by the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) Project required a revision of the present system, to assess its suitability and robustness. In particular, a burst (i.e. endurance) test of the scraper blades has been carried out, with the whole bunch train being scraped at the centre (worst working conditions). In order to take into account the effect of betatron and longitudinal beam dynamics on energy deposition patterns, and nuclear and Coulomb scattering in the absorbing medium onto loss patterns, the SixTrack and Fluka codes have been coupled, profiting from the best of the refined physical models they respectively embed. The coupling envisages an active exchange of tracked particles between the two codes at each turn, and an on-line aperture check in SixTrack, in order to estimate the local cleaning inefficiency of the system. In the framework of the LIU scraper studies, a benchmark between the SixTrack-Fluka coupling and the outcomes of the burst test is being carried out, comparing observables about material damage, beam intensity and losses.