Hollow bunch distributions at high intensity in the PS booster

Bunches from the CERN PS Booster (PSB) with an improved bunching factor due to a hollow longitudinal distribution would facilitate the production of a high-intensity (>7´1012/bunch) proton beam needed for the future neutron time-of-flight facility. It would also provide a safety margin for the Large Hadron Collider beam, where a double-batch transfer is used in which the first PSB batch waits for 1.2 seconds at 1.4 GeV in the PS for the second one to arrive. Since the earlier reports of the successful acceleration of low-intensity hollow bunches in the PSB, theoretical studies of the Beam Transfer Function (BTF) have led to a greatly improved understanding of the stability requirements of such beams. In addition, an experimental study of the capture of hollow coasting beams has revealed that structure resulting from the linac acceleration process persists for a remarkably long time. Any inhomogeneity has to be smeared out and the degree of hollowness carefully adjusted by a controlled longitudinal blow-up before a reproducible, stable bunch can be created. A method has been developed for reliably creating hollow distributions of up to 8´1012 protons per bunch which have been routinely accelerated in the PSB.