An 8 GeV Linac as the Booster Replacement in the Fermilab Power Upgrade
Increasing the Main Injector (MI) beam power above ~1.2 MW requires replacement of the 8 GeV Booster by a higher intensity alternative. In the Project X era, rapid-cycling synchrotron (RCS) and Linac solutions were considered for this purpose. In this paper, we consider the Linac version that produces 8 GeV H- beam for injection into the Recycler Ring(RR) or Main Injector (MI). The Linac takes ~1 GeV beam from the PIP-II Linac and accelerates it to ~2 GeV in a 650MHz SRF Linac, followed by a ~2-8 GeV pulsed Linac using 1300 MHz cryomodules. The Linac components incorporate recent improvements in SRF technology. The Linac configuration and beam dynamics requirements are presented. Injection options are discussed. Foil-based injection is the present standard but R&D toward implementing laser-assisted injection could enable a significant improvement. Research needed to implement the Booster replacement is described.