The chance to build a new machine and start it up is very motivating. My team is responsible for the beam commissioning, which means delivering a beam with nominal performances in terms of stability, lifetime and emittance. It’s our job to provide what has been promised to the beamlines.
I also oversaw the upgrade of the injection zone, which brought me outside the theoretical world of beam dynamics, equations and simulations. I enjoyed working in the tunnel, interacting with the mechanical engineers and the hardware, and seeing the more practical side of things.
We have a very dense programme with three months of commissioning from December to March. I’m expecting some long night shifts! We try to model problems in advance as much as possible using a simulated version of the machine. We rely a lot on the experience gained with the previous machine so we are quite confident.
Once we have passed the first step and have beam circulating with a reasonable lifetime then we can start vacuum conditioning. When the machine is operating smoothly, it’ll free up time to think about future improvements. Our objective is to always provide better beam properties for the beamlines and users.