First commissioning of the SuperKEKB vacuum system

Abstract

The first (Phase-1) commissioning of SuperKEKB, an asymmetric-energy electron-positron collider at KEK, began in February 2016, after more than five years of upgradation work on KEKB and successfully ended in June 2016. A major task of the Phase-1 commissioning was the vacuum scrubbing of new beam pipes in anticipation of a sufficiently long beam lifetime and low background noise in the next commissioning, prior to which a new particle detector will be installed. The pressure rise per unit beam current decreased steadily with increasing beam dose, as expected. Another important task was to check the stabilities of various new vacuum components at high beam currents of approximately 1 A. The temperature increases of the bellows chambers, gate valves, connection flanges, and so on were less than several degrees at 1 A, and no serious problems were found. The effectiveness of the antechambers and TiN coating in suppressing the electron-cloud effect (ECE) in the positron ring was also confirmed. However, the ECE in the Al-alloy bellows chambers was observed where TiN had not been coated. The use of permanent magnets to create an axial magnetic field of approximately 100 G successfully suppressed this effect. Pressure bursts accompanying beam losses were also frequently observed in the positron ring. This phenomenon is still under investigation, but it is likely caused by collisions between the circulating beams and dust particles, especially in the dipole magnet beam pipes.