(Video: CERN)
On 13 March, a beam of negative hydrogen ions was injected into the first accelerator module of Linac 4, the linear accelerator which will replace Linac 2. The beam was created in the new source built for Linac 4 and accelerated from 45 kEV to 3 MeV by a radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) module, the first link in the Linac 4 accelerator chain. This crucial phase went off without a hitch.
The video above shows the new Linac 4 ion source, the low-energy transfer line and the RFQ, with running commentary by Giulia Bellodi and Carlo Rossi from the Beams Department.