Fermilab Proton Accelerator Complex Status and Improvement Plans

TL;DR

Fermilab's proton accelerator complex is undergoing significant upgrades, including PIP-II, to increase beam power for high energy physics experiments, with ongoing R&D to enhance performance and reduce costs.

Contribution

This paper details Fermilab's current accelerator performance, future upgrade plans, and R&D efforts to improve beam power and reliability over the next two decades.

Findings

Achieved 700 kW beam power in 2017, with plans to reach 1.2 MW by the next decade.

Development of PIP-II aims to replace aging infrastructure with modern superconducting RF linacs.

Strategies are in place to potentially double beam power to over 2.4 MW after upgrades.

Abstract

Fermilab carries out an extensive program of accelerator-based high energy particle physics research at the Intensity Frontier that relies on the operation of 8 GeV and 120 GeV proton beamlines for a number of fixed target experiments. Routine operation with a world-record 700kW of average 120 GeV beam power on the neutrino target was achieved in 2017 as the result of the Proton Improvement Plan (PIP) upgrade. There are plans to further increase the power to 900 - 1000 kW. The next major upgrade of the FNAL accelerator complex, called PIP-II, is under development. It aims at 1.2MW beam power on target at the start of the LBNF/DUNE experiment in the middle of the next decade and assumes replacement of the existing 40-years old 400 MeV normal-conducting Linac with a modern 800 MeV superconducting RF linear accelerator. There are several concepts to further double the beam power to >2.4MW after replacement of the existing 8 GeV Booster synchrotron. In this article we discuss current performance of the Fermilab proton accelerator complex, the upgrade plans for the next two decades and the accelerator R&D program to address cost and performance risks for these upgrades.