Study of the beam-cavity interaction in the PS 10 MHz RF system

The eleven main accelerating cavities of the Proton Synchrotron (PS) at CERN consist of two ferrite-loaded coaxial lambda/4 resonators each. Both resonators oscillate in phase, as their gaps are electrically connected by short bars. They are in addition magnetically coupled via the bias loop used for cavity tuning. The cavities are equipped with a wide-band feedback system, limiting the beam loading, and a further reduction of the beam induced voltage is achieved by relays which short-circuit each half-resonator gap when the cavity is not in use. Asymmetries of the beam induced voltage observed in the two half-cavities indicate that the coupling between the two resonators is not as tight as expected. The total cavity impedance coupling to the beam may be affected differently by the contributions of both resonators. A dedicated measurement campaign with high-intensity proton beam and numerical simulation have been performed to investigate the beam-cavity interaction. This paper reports the result of the study and the work aiming at the development of a model of the system, including the wide-band feedback, which reproduces this interaction.