ELENA Commissioning and Status

The Extra Low ENergy Antiproton ring ELENA is a small synchrotron recently constructed and commissioned to decelerate antiprotons injected from the Antiproton Decelerator AD with a kinetic energy of 5.3 MeV down to 100 keV. Controlled deceleration in the synchrotron, equipped with an electron cooler to reduce losses and generate dense bunches, allows the experiments, typically capturing the antiprotons in traps and manipulating them further, to improve the trapping efficiency by one to two orders of magnitude. During 2018, bunches with an energy of 100 keV with parameters close to nominal have been demonstrated, and first beams have been provided to an experiment in a new experimental zone. The magnetic transfer lines from the AD to the experiments have been replaced by electrostatic lines from ELENA. Commissioning of the new transfer lines and, in parallel, studies to better understand the ring with H⁻ beams from a dedicated source, have started in autumn 2020. The first 100 keV antiproton physics run using ELENA will start in late summer 2021.