Barrier bucket and transversely split beams for loss-free multi-turn extraction in synchrotrons

A special radio-frequency manipulation has been studied and successfully implemented at the CERN Proton Synchrotron for the first time. This technique aims at depleting a well-defined fraction of a continuous longitudinal beam distribution by creating a so-called barrier bucket. In addition to the intrinsic interest for its originality, this approach has an immediate application at CERN in combination with the Multi-Turn Extraction scheme. The combination of these two exotic techniques into a single, highly sophisticated process allows to dramatically reduce the beam loss at PS extraction, thus opening the door to the production of high-intensity proton beams for future fixed-target experiments at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron.