Improving the slow extraction efficiency of the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron

In the last few decades, the use of particle accelerators became widespread not only in different fields of physics (eg. particle physics, particle astrophysics) but also in other sciences [1]. Two interesting examples of this are biology and medicine. Scientists used synchrotron light produced by electron machines to solve the 3D structure of different proteins. A few particle accelerators were built in the last years with the main purpose of offering people a new form of radiation therapy, called the ion beam therapy (e.g. MedAustron [2]). Proton and heavy ion beams have a much better-localised energy deposition region, which makes them the perfect candidate for treatments that need deep penetration of the beam. On the other end of the spectrum, in art history particle beams can be used to analyse works of art in a non-destructive way [3]. In material science, particle accelerators play a role as a source of photon, neutron and ion beams. For example at ISIS scientists used neutron reflectivity and small-angle neutron scattering to analyse how the drug amphotericin works [4]. Due to many fields using particle accelerators for many different reasons, their requirements for the beam can vary greatly from each other, and there is always room for improvement. Accelerator physics is sometimes seen as the "servant" of particle physics or heavy ion physics, but in reality while particle physics is important and a large portion of accelerator development is happening in nuclear research centres (e.g. CERN), accelerator physics did spring forth in the last decade, and became an essential part of modern-day technology and medicine. It is believed that in the upcoming decade particle accelerators will spread even further, and become more and more common in an ordinary university laboratory for example. One of the most critical parts of particle acceleration is the extraction of the particles. The quality of the beam strongly depends on the method used for extraction. There are many studies aimed to achieve better, quicker, more loss efficient extraction of particle accelerators. This work was done to study a possibility to increase the efficiency of the so-called slow extraction.