Experimental study of proton beam halo in mismatched beams

We report measurements of transverse beam-halo formation in mismatched proton beams in a 52-quadrupole FODO-transport channel following the 6.7 MeV RFQ at the Low-Energy Demonstration Accelerator (LEDA) at Los Alamos. Beam profiles in both transverse planes were measured using a new diagnostic device that consists of a movable carbon filament for measurement of the beam core, and scraper plates for measurement of the outer part of the distributions. The initial results indicate a surprisingly strong growth rate of the rms emittance even for the modest space-charge tune depressions of the experiment. Our results are consistent with the complete transfer of free energy of the mismatched beams into emittance growth within 10 envelope oscillations for both the breathing and the quadrupole modes