Status of the LHC proton beam in the CERN SPS

During the 2000-2001 shutdown the SPS has undergone a major hardware upgrade to cope with its role of LHC injector. An impedance reduction campaign, improvements to the RF beam-control systems, and modifications to the injection kicker magnets and transverse feedback were the main items of this upgrade. By the end of the 2001 run, after a series of machine development sessions, a single LHC batch with half the nominal intensity could be accelerated from 26 to 450 GeV/c, the LHC injection energy, with nominal longitudinal and transverse parameters. At present the major known obstacle to the achievement of the nominal LHC beam with four batches is the beam-induced electron cloud. This generates both dramatic vacuum pressure increases and fast single and coupled bunch transverse instabilities. The problems encountered with this high brilliance beam and solutions developed so far are presented. Possible cures for the existing limitations are outlined.