Plasma Cleaning of LCLS-II-HE verification cryomodule cavities

Plasma cleaning is a technique that can be applied in superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities in situ in cryomodules in order to decrease their level of field emission. We developed the technique for the Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II) cavities and we present in this paper the full development and application of plasma processing to the LCLS-II High Energy (HE) verification cryomodule (vCM). We validated our plasma processing procedure on the vCM, fully processing four out of eight cavities of this CM, demonstrating that cavities performance were preserved in terms of both accelerating field and quality factor. Applying plasma processing to this clean, record breaking cryomodule also showed that no contaminants were introduced in the string, maintaining the vCM field emission-free up to the maximum field reached by each cavity. We also found that plasma processing eliminates multipacting (MP) induced quenches that are typically observed frequently within the MP band field range. This suggests that plasma processing could be employed in situ in CMs to mitigate both field emission and multipacting, significantly decreasing the testing time of cryomodules, the linac commissioning time and cost and increasing the accelerator reliability.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure

A New Design for the Hilumi Radio-Frequency Dipole Bare Cavity

Crabbing cavities are one of the technological landmark that will allow the LHC to optimize its per-formance and maximize its integrated luminosity by allowing a head-on collision between the bunches despite the non-zero crossing angle. A total of 8 crab cavities will be installed in the interaction region of each of the two experiments, ATLAS and CMS. In the last years, the two types of crab cavities were de-signed, built and tested under the US-LARP R&D pro-gram. Horizontal crabbing is obtained with a radio-frequency dipole cavity (RFD) designed by Old Do-minion University (ODU), SLAC and Fermilab (FNAL). In this paper a new mechanical design, that uses passive stiffeners, is presented. This design leads to a decrease of the Lorentz Force Detuning frequency shift, satisfy the requirements on pressure sensitivity, validate the structural integrity and increase the tuner sensitivity and the maximum elastic tuning range. Furthermore, it will be possible to greatly simplify the shape of the magnetic shield and Helium vessel with respect to the current design

Progress of PIP-II Activities at IJCLab

International audienceSince 2018, IJCLab is involved in PIP-II project on the design and development of accelerator components for the SSR2 (Single Spoke Resonator type 2) section of the superconducting linac. First pre-production components have been fabricated, surface processing and cavity qualification in vertical cryostat are on-going. IJCLab has upgraded its facilities by developing a new set-up to perform rotational BCP. The progress of all processing and testing activities for PIP-II project will be reported and, in particular, a dedicated study to qualify removal uniformity compared to static BCP will be presented

Contribution of IN2P3 to PIP-II Project: Plans and Progress

International audienceIJCLab is one of the labs of IN2P3 (National institute of nuclear and particle physics), one of the ten research institutes composing the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Since 2018, IJCLab has been involved in the PIP-II project, assisting with the design, development, and qualification of accelerator components for the SSR2 (Single Spoke Resonator type 2) section of the superconducting linac. The first pre-production components (cavity, coupler, and tuner) have been fabricated, and some of the first qualification tests have been performed at IJCLab. This paper will summarize the complete scope of IJCLab¿s contributions to PIP-II and give updates on the performances of the first pre-production components

Pegylated interferon α plus ribavirin for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C: A multicentre independent study supported by the Italian Drug Agency

Background: Data on the efficacy of Peg-interferon/ribavirin therapy for chronic hepatitis C are mostly derived from treatment of selected patients enrolled in clinical trials. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of Peg-interferon/ribavirin therapy in "real world" chronic hepatitis C patients in Italy. Methods: Independent observational multicentre study including consecutive patients receiving Peg-interferon/ribavirin in the 18 months before (retrospective phase) and after (prospective phase) the start of the study. Results: 4176 patients were eligible. The final study population consisted of 2051 patients in the retrospective and 2073 in the prospective phase.Sustained virological response was achieved by 1036 patients (50.5%) during the retrospective phase: 325 were genotypes 1/4 (34.1%) and 684 were genotypes 2/3 (67.2%) and by 800 patients (38.6%) during the prospective phase: 300 were genotypes 1/4 (28.4%) and 473 were genotypes 2/3 (51.5%).During multivariate analysis genotypes 2/3 were significantly associated with higher sustained virological response rates; cirrhosis and γ-glutamil-transpeptidase >2 times the normal limit were associated with poorer response. Conclusions: The response to Peg-interferon/ribavirin therapy in "real world" clinical practice is distinctly lower than in registration trials. The difference in response rates was more pronounced among easy-to-treat than among difficult-to-treat hepatitis C virus genotypes. © 2014 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l