The antiproton production beam for the antiproton collector (''A.C.'')

The CERN Antiproton Collector (''A.C.'') imposes stringent requirements on the proton primary beam from the PS (bunch length shorter than 25 ns, and more than 2*1012 protons per bunch at the production target). A technique has been proposed which provides that beam by a quasi-adiabatic merging of pairs of bunches. Most of the envisaged RF manipulations have been tested during recent machine experiments. Performance is at present limited by the RF cavity amplifiers. Nevertheless, the most delicate part of the process (''bunch pair merging'') was successfully carried out up to an intensity of 3*1012 protons per bunch after merging. The experience gained from these tests is presented. Considerable effort went into RF hardware development. The low power part is complete. The design of the high power system is now being finalized and construction is about to start. Both parts are described in this paper