Experimental tests of a prototype system for active damping of the e-p instability at the lanl PSR

A prototype of an analog, transverse feedback system for damping of the two-stream (e-p) instability has been developed and successfully tested at the Los Alamos Proton Storage Ring (PSR). This paper describes the system configuration, results of several experimental tests and studies of system optimization along with studies of the factors limiting its performance.

INTRODUCTION

The PSR (proton storage ring) in Los Alamos has undergone many studies over its lifetime and it has been observed to undergo an e-p instability for various machine configurations. This e-p instability is of particular interest to the SNS (Spallation Neutron Source) in Oak Ridge as the beam intensities and beam power are significantly higher than at PSR, while the machine configurations are somewhat similar.