Resonant slow extraction with constant optics for improved separatrix control at the extraction septum

Losses and component activation are limiting performance factors for slow extraction with high-power applications, and new techniques of loss-reduction, such as bent crystals, require a stable and narrow separatrix angular spread. Conventional tune-sweep slow extraction results in an optics change and an accompanying separatrix rotation through the spill. This can be compensated by a dynamic closed-orbit bump, but requires a high level of complexity for setting up and monitoring. For the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), a simpler and powerful new extraction technique has been developed and deployed, providing a mechanism to fix the machine optics and hence separatrix completely through the spill. The technique with the name constant optics slow extraction (COSE) relies on high chromaticity and scaling all machine settings with beam rigidity following the momentum distribution of the beam. In this paper we describe the new COSE concept and its successful operational deployment in the SPS during the 2018 run.