Providing the Longitudinal Beam Parameters of the LHC Beam

The luminosity foreseen for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at present being built at CERN, places stringent requirements on the longitudinal beam parameters of the high intensity proton beam. Critical points in the production of this beam occur both in the injector chain and at transfer and capture in the LHC itself. The consequent design of the superconducting RF system as well as the proposed damping and higher harmonic RF systems is discussed. Emphasis is also placed on some areas in the SPS machine, injector for the LHC, where transient beam loading and both single and multi-bunch instabilities must be carefully controlled to attain the high beam quality required.