R&D on Beam Injection and Bunching Schemes in the Fermilab Booster

Abstract

Fermilab is committed to upgrade its accelerator complex to support HEP experiments at the intensity frontier. The ongoing Proton Improvement Plan (PIP) enables us to reach 700 kW beam power on the NuMI neutrino targets. By the end of the next decade, the current 400 MeV normal conducting LINAC will be replaced by an 800 MeV superconducting LINAC (PIP-II) with an increased beam power >50% of the PIP design goal. Both in PIP and PIP-II era, the existing Booster is going to play a very significant role, at least for next two decades. In the meanwhile, we have recently developed an innovative beam injection and bunching for the Booster called early injection scheme that continues to use the existing 400 MeV LINAC and implemented into operation. This has the potential to increase the Booster beam intensity by >40% from the PIP design goal. Some benefits from the have already been seen. In this paper, I will describe the basic principle of the scheme, results from recent beam experiments, our experience with the new in operation, current status, issues and future plans. This fits well with the current and future intensity upgrade programs at Fermilab.