From 2005 through 2012, the Fermilab Main Injector provided intense beams of 120 GeV protons to produce neutrino beams and antiprotons. Hardware improvements in conjunction with improved diagnostics allowed the system to reach sustained operation at
~400 kW beam power. Transmission was very high except for beam lost at or near the 8 GeV injection energy where 95% beam transmission results in about 1.5 kW of beam loss. By minimizing and localizing loss, residual radiation levels fell while beam power was doubled. Lost beam was directed to either the collimation system or to the beam abort. Critical apertures were increased while improved instrumentation allowed optimal use of available apertures. We will summarize the improvements required to achieve high intensity, the impact of various loss control tools and the status and trends in residual radiation in the Main Injector.
Ionization profile monitors (IPMs) are used in the Fermilab Main Injector (MI) to monitor injection lattice matching by measuring turn-by-turn sigmas at injection and to measure transverse emittance of the beam during the acceleration cycle. The IPMs
provide a periodic, non-destructive means of performing turn-by-turn emittance measurements where other techniques are not applicable. As Fermilab is refocusing its attention on the intensity frontier, non-intercepting diagnostics such as IPMs are expected to become even more important. This paper gives an overview of the operational use of IPMs for emittance measurements and injection lattice matching measurements at Fermilab, and summarizes the future plans.
