Beam Commissioning of the New 160 MeV H⁻ Injection System of the CERN PS Booster

A key component to meeting the brightness targets of the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project at CERN is the new 160 MeV H⁻ charge exchange injection system into the Proton Synchrotron Booster. This system has been in beam commissioning since December 2020, optimizing the beam production schemes for tailoring different beams to the respective user-defined brightness targets. In this paper, selected measurements from the beam commissioning period are presented, characterizing the system’s flexibility to produce the required wide range of transverse emittances. The discussion focuses on the essential optimization of the injection set-up to minimize space charge driven emittance blow-up and injection errors. The results are completed by selected comparisons with multi-particle simulation models of the injection process.