Commissioning and experience in stripping, filtering and measuring the 4.2 MeV/u lead ion beam at CERN Linac 3

The new CERN Heavy Ion Linac (Linac3) accelerates a Pb27+ beam to 4.2 MeV/u. The beam is then stripped to Pb53+ by a carbon foil, and, after stripping, a 12 m filter line prepares the beam for the injection into the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB). The filter line eliminates the unwanted charge states, checks the beam quality (energy, energy spread, transverse emittance and intensity), and finally transports the beam in the lines leading to the PSB. The paper summarises the transverse beam dynamics of the line, and reports on its commissioning, especially focusing on the experiments that led to the stripper choice, and on the measurements performed with a specially developed single pulse moperational experience is also reported.