Status and plans for Linac4 installation and commissioning

Linac4 is a normal conducting 160 MeV Hˉ linear accelerator presently being installed and progressively commissioned at CERN. It will replace the ageing 50 MeV Linac2 as injector of the PS Booster (PSB), increasing at the same time its brightness by a factor of two thanks to the higher injection energy. This will be the first step of a program to increase the beam brightness in the LHC injectors for the needs of the High-Luminosity LHC project. After a series of beam measurements on a dedicated test stand the 3 MeV Linac4 front-end, including ion source, RFQ and a beam chopping line, has been recommissioned at its final position in the Linac4 tunnel. Commissioning of the following section, the Drift Tube Linac, is starting. Beam commissioning will take place in steps of increasing energy, to reach the final 160 MeV in 2015. An extended beam measurement phase including testing of stripping equipment for the PSB and a year-long test run to assess and improve Linac4 reliability will take place in 2016, prior to the connection of Linac4 to the PSB that will take place during the next long LHC shut-down