Preparing the SPS for LHC

The beams that the SPS must accelerate to fill the LHC have stringent requirements both transversely and longitudinally. The single bunch and total intensities have been obtained separately in the past but now have to be produced simultaneously and must be concentrated in a small part of the machine circumference. The transverse emittances will be small as will the allowable blow-up from injection to extraction. Beams with the LHC parameters will not be available in the SPS until the upgrades in the pre-injector chain are finished. Nevertheless a programme of studies is being carried out to examine the different areas where problems might occur. The delicate areas are at injection where single and coupled bunch instabilities have to be controlled in the longitudinal plane and where transverse emittance blow-up is expected, and at top energy where complicated RF gymnastics are required and where longitudinal coupled bunch instabilites can develop on the long flat top.