Space charge driven beam loss for cooled beams and mitigation measures in the CERN Low Energy Ion Ring

The performance of the CERN Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR) with electron cooled lead ion beams is presently limited by losses, which occur during RF capture and the first part of acceleration. Extensive experimental studies performed in 2015 indicate that the losses are caused by the interplay of betatron resonances and the direct space charge detuning, which is significantly enhanced during bunching. Mitigation measures have already been identified and successfully tested, such as reducing the peak line charge density after RF capture, i.e. increasing the rms longitudinal emittance, and compensating third order resonances using existing harmonic sextupole correctors. New record intensities at extraction have been achieved. This talk describes the main experimental results from the 2015 measurement campaign including already implemented mitigation measures and the proposed strategy for even further increasing the LEIR intensity reach in the future.