CERN, Geneva
In the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS), a slow beam loss of few percents is still observed on the long injection flat-bottom with the nominal beam for LHC after fine tuning of the working point. The understanding of space-charge effects is therefore of paramount importance to try and alleviate this limitation. This is why controlled benchmarking space-charge experiments were performed in the last few years. The results are presented in detail with a particular emphasis on the maximum achievable space-charge tune shift with long lifetime. On the contrary, space-charge effects usually play a minor role in high-energy machines like the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). However, they could potentially become a limitation for the heavy ion beams needed for the LHC. Therefore, experimental studies on space-charge limitations were also performed in the SPS in the last few years. The results are discussed in detail in the present paper. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that observations similar to the ones measured in the PS in the presence of space-charge were also measured in the SPS with electron cloud.
