Transverse impedance measurements and simulations of the LHC injection kicker magnet

Kicker magnets contribute significantly to the total impedance budget of many accelerators. Of particular interest, from a beam stability point of view, is the transverse beam coupling impedance (TBCI) that is used to determine intensity limitations of a machine. Until recently, no conclusive TBCI data for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) injection kicker magnets (MKIs) was available. However, in view of the upgrade of the MKIs for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project, the TBCI of the existing design needed to be estimated to be used as reference for an upgraded version. To that end, electromagnetic simulations were carried out to determine the dipolar and quadrupolar components of the TBCI in the two transverse planes. To validate the simulations, test bench measurements were performed using standard RF measurement techniques. In the present work, the results from TBCI simulations and measurements are reported and compared. Detailed descriptions of the methods and techniques used as well as the realization of the experimental set-up are also given.