Interbunch extinction measurement at the BNL AGS for the KOPIO experiment

The KOPIO experiment at the BNL AGS required an extracted proton beam in which a debunched, coasting beam is forced between empty longitudinal RF buckets to form microbunches. The goal of the measurement described here was to obtain a low background determination of the fraction of protons coming from the AGS slowly extracted beam at times between microbunches (interbunch extinction). The effect on interbunch extinction of variations in the RF cavity voltage, the momentum dispersion of the beam and the main guide field voltage-ripple was studied. It was found that there exists a broad range of operating parameters that could allow the AGS to produce microbunches with the interbunch extinction better than the KOPIO experiment requirement. Results obtained in this study gave interbunch extinctions better than 10−5 (1%) of KOPIO's upper limit.