Characterisation of the SPS Slow-extraction Parameters

The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is the last accelerator in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) injector chain but its main users are the fixed-target experiments located in the North Area (NA). The beams, which are among the most intense circulating in the SPS, are extracted to the NA over several thousands of turns by exploiting a third-integer resonant extraction. The unavoidable losses intrinsic to such an extraction makes its optimisation one of the main priorities for operation, to reduce beam induced activation of the machine. The settings of the extraction systems, together with the tune sweep speed and the beam characteristics (momentum spread, emittance, etc.) are the parameters that can be controlled for spill and loss optimisation. In this paper, the contribution of these parameters to the slow-extraction spill quality are investigated through tracking simulations. The simulation model is compared with beam measurements and optimisations suggested.