Beam transfer functions and beam stabilisation in a double RF system

The high intensity proton beam for LHC accelerated in the CERN SPS is stabilised against coupled-bunch instabilities by a 4th harmonic RF system in bunch-shortening mode. Bunch-lengthening mode, which could also be useful to reduce peak line density and alleviate problems from e-cloud and kicker heating, does not give desirable results for beam stability. In this paper an analysis of the limitations of these two different modes of operation is presented together with measurements of the Beam Transfer Function for the double RF system. As predicted by theory, for sufficiently long bunches with the same noise excitation, the measured amplitude of the beam response in bunchlengthening mode is an order of magnitude higher than that for bunch-shortening mode or for a single RF system.