Performance of the CERN PSB at 160 MeV with $H^{-}$ charge exchange injection

As part of the LHC Injectors Upgrade Project, the CERN PS Booster (PSB) will be upgraded with a H- charge exchange injection system and its injection energy will be raised from 50 MeV to 160 MeV to obtain the beam brightness required for the LHC High-Luminosity Upgrade. Space charge effects like beam losses and transverse emittance blow-up at injection are expected to be the main limitations towards the achievement of the required high brightness. Studies of beam dynamics in presence of space charge in order to evaluate the performances of the PSB after the Upgrade have been performed. The first part of the work consists of measurements in the present machine, to study the effects of space charge and its interplay with resonances and to have a good set of data for code benchmarking. The code chosen for the beam tracking in presence of space charge is PTC-Orbit (and PyOrbit). Necessary numerical convergence studies are presented together with a benchmark with the PSB measurements. Once assessed the code and its limitations, predictions for the 160 MeV injection with high brightness beams are delivered in terms of beam losses and emittance blow-up. These studies include the optimization of the working-point, resonance compensation and/or chromaticity correction taking into account the expected magnetic errors in the machine.