The Proton Beams for the New Time-of-Flight Neutron Facility at the CERN-PS

The experimental determination of neutron cross sections in fission and capture reactions as a function of the neutron energy is of primary importance in nuclear physics. Recent developments at CERN and elsewhere have shown that many fields of research and development, such as the design of Accelerator-Driven Systems (ADS) for nuclear waste incineration, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental nuclear physics, dosimetry for radiological protection and therapy, would benefit from a better knowledge of neutron cross sections. A neutron facility at the CERN-PS has been proposed with the aim of carrying out a systematic and high resolution study of neutron cross sections through Time-Of-Flight (n-TOF) measurement. The facility requires a high intensity proton beam (about 0.7x1013 particles/bunch) distributed in a short bunch (about 25 ns total length) to produce the neutrons by means of a spallation process in a lead target. To achieve these characteristics, a number of complex beam gymnastics have to be performed. All the beam manipulations are presented in this paper as well as some beam dynamics issues encountered during the setting up. The details of the new transfer line used to deliver the beam onto the target are also described.