ORNL, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
SLAC, Menlo Park, California
The Accelerator Physics group at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) has developed numerous codes to assist in the beam commissioning, tuning, and operation of the SNS Linac. These codes have been key to meeting the beam commissioning milestones. For example, a recently developed code provides for rapid retuning of the superconducting Linac in case of RF stations going offline or coming online. Highlights of these "physics applications" will be presented.
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
CERN, Geneva
Tune feedback was first implemented in RHIC in 2002 as a specialist activity. The transition to full operational status was impeded by dynamic range problems, as well as by overall loop instabilities driven by large coupling. The dynamic range problem was solved by the CERN development of the Direct Diode Detection Analog Front End. Continuous measurement of all projections of the betatron Eigenmodes made possible the world's first implementation of coupling feedback during beam acceleration, resolving the problem of overall loop instabilites. Simultaneous tune and coupling feedbacks were utilized as specialist activities for ramp development during the 2006 RHIC run. At the beginning of the 2007 RHIC run there remained two obstacles to making these feedbacks fully operational in RHIC - chromaticity measurement and control, and the presence of strong harmonics of the power line frequency in the betatron spectrum. We report here on progress in tune, coupling, and chromaticity measurement and feedback, and discuss the relevance of our results to the LHC commissioning effort. The results of investigations of power line harmonics in RHIC are presented elsewhere in these proceedings.