Electrostatic deceleration of the LEAR antiprotons

A high voltage electrostatic column is proposed for an efficient deceleration of the 60 MeV/c LEAR antiprotons down to an energy where they will be trapped and cooled. The column, made of standard NEC tubes connects the LEAR beam line to an SF6 isolated terminal in which the energized (but disconnected) superconducting solenoid and associated components are placed. The charging chain ramps the terminal voltage to its final value (slightly less than 2 MV) during the few seconds preceding the LEAR beam injection and returns the voltage to a preselected low value within the following few seconds. The decelerated antiprotons have less than 10 keV energy spread and can be optimally trapped, cooled and extracted into a high quality low energy beam.