Linac4, a New Injector for the CERN PS Booster

The first bottle-neck towards higher beam brightness in the LHC injector chain is due to space charge induced tune spread at injection into the CERN PS Booster (PSB). A new injector called Linac4 is proposed to remove this limitation. Using RF cavities at 352 and 704 MHz, it will replace the present 50 MeV proton Linac2, and deliver a 160 MeV, 40 mA H- beam. The higher injection energy will reduce space charge effects by a factor of 2, and charge exchange will drastically reduce the beam losses at injection. Operation will be simplified and the beam brightness required for the LHC ultimate luminosity should be obtained at PS ejection. Moreover, for the needs of non-LHC physics experiments like ISOLDE, the number of protons per pulse from the PSB will increase by a significant factor. This new linac constitutes an essential component of any of the envisaged LHC upgrade scenarios. It is also designed to become the low energy part of a future 3.5 GeV, multi-megawatt superconducting linac (SPL). The present design has benefited from the support of the French CEA and IN2P3, of the European Union and of the ISTC (Moscow). The proposed machine and its layout on the CERN site are described.