Operational Flexibility of the SPL as Proton Driver for Neutrino and Other Applications

The pulse structure of proton linacs is determined by the linac energy, the RF system, and the maximum duty cycle of the source. Short bursts of protons in the microsecond range can be achieved by adding an accumulator ring and a reduction of the bunch length to the order of nanoseconds can be accomplished with an additional bunch compressor ring. The size of the rings along with their RF frequency determines the time structure of the proton driver output burst to hit the target. This pulse structure can be further modified using multiple fillings of the accumulator and compressor rings within one linac pulse. This paper illustrates the possible modes of operation of the SPL at CERN along with its limitations at various energies in combination with accumulator and compressor rings.