Transverse Mode-Coupling Instability in the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron

A vertical single-bunch instability has been observed in 2003 right after injection at 26 GeV/c in the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). High-intensity proton bunches (~1.2 1011 p/b) with low longitudinal emittance (~0.2 eVs) are affected by heavy losses after less than one synchrotron period. Such phenomenon has already been observed with leptons in many machines, e.g. in the SPS, or with protons at transition, e.g. in the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS). However, to the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time with protons far from transition. The absence of transverse mode-coupling instability in hadron machines is generally explained by three mechanisms: (i) the intensity threshold for the longitudinal microwave instability is generally lower than for the transverse mode-coupling instability, (ii) the intensity threshold due to mode-coupling between the two lowest azimuthal modes increases with space charge, and (iii) the intensity threshold increases with bunch length (in the long-bunch regime). In this talk measurements performed in the SPS are compared to analytical and simulation predictions.