Interplay of space charge and intrabeam scattering in the LHC ion injector chain

Abstract: The ion injectors of the CERN accelerator chain, in particular the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) and the Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR), operate in a strong space charge~(SC) and intrabeam scattering (IBS) regime, which can degrade beam quality. Optimizing the ion beam performance requires thus to study the interplay of these two effects in tracking simulations by incorporating both SC and IBS effects interleaved with lattice nonlinearities. In this respect, the kinetic theory approach of treating IBS effects has been deployed. A new, modified approach has been introduced using the formalism of the Bjorken and Mtingwa model and the complete elliptic integrals of the second kind for faster numerical evaluation. This IBS kick is implemented in PyORBIT and extensive benchmarking cases against analytical models are shown. Results of combined space charge and intrabeam scattering simulations for the SPS and LEIR are presented and compared with observations from beam measurements.