Upgrading the CERN PS booster to 1 GeV for improved antiproton production

For efficient antiproton production, a maximum number of protons must be concentrated within one quarter of the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) ring before sending the beam to the production target. With the Antiproton Collector (AC) added to the Antiproton Accumulator (AA), the bunch length has to be shorter (by about 20 ns) than before to allow bunch rotation in the AC. While a more ambitious scheme providing such a beam is being implemented, a funneling method, in which beams of two rings of the four-ring Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) are recombined in pairs by an RF dipole that permits longitudinal interleaving of successive bunches, has been in operation since the start-up of the AC. Preliminary experiments had shown that the PS space-charge limit had to be overcome in order to make the scheme feasible. After raising the PSB output energy from 815 MeV to 1 GeV, beams of >10¹³ protons compressed into one quarter of the PS ring were achieved. Related to this development, a record proton beam for fixed-target physics was accelerated in the Super Proton Synchrotron, while beam losses in the Proton Synchrotron Booster-Proton Synchrotron Ring (PSB-PS) line were reduced