Space charge compensation in low energy proton beams

High power accelerators are being studied for several projects including accelerator driven neutron or neutrino sources. The low energy part of these facilities has to be carefully optimized to match the beam requirements of the higher energy parts. In this low energy part, the space charge self force, induced by a high intensity beam, has to be carefully managed. This nonlinear force can generate a high irreversible emittance growth of the beam. To reduce space charge effects, neutralization of the beam charge can be done by capturing some particles of the ionised residual gas in the vacuum chamber. This space charge compensation (SCC) regime complicates the dynamic study. Modelling the beam behaviour in such regime would be a significant contribution to the development of high intensity accelerators. Numerical and experimental study of SCC is in progress on the Saclay High Intensity Proton Injector. Experimental measurements and 2D/3D simulations of proton beam SCC will be presented.