Reconfiguration of SPS Landau octupole circuits to minimise second order chromaticity

In the SPS Q20 optics presently used for LHC beams, the Landau octupole families of the SPS (LOF and LOD circuits) generate large second order chromaticity due to the relatively high dispersion at their locations. Since the induced second order chromaticity results in enhanced losses due to the large incoherent tune spread, these octupoles cannot be used for mitigating transverse instabilities for LHC beams. A new cabling scheme was proposed, exploiting additional octupoles that were already installed in the machine but not used, which allows minimizing the induced second order chromaticity in both the Q20 optics used for LHC beams, as well as the original SPS optics used for fixed target beams. This paper summarises the optics calculations as well as the experimental verification of the reduced chromatic detuning of the new octupole scheme.