Proposal for an Accelerator R&D User Facility at Fermilab's Advanced Superconducting Test Accelerator (ASTA)

Fermilab is the nation’s particle physics laboratory, supported by the DOE Office of High Energy Physics (OHEP). Fermilab is a world leader in accelerators, with a demonstrated track-record— spanning four decades—of excellence in accelerator science and technology. We describe the significant opportunity to complete, in a highly leveraged manner, a unique accelerator research facility that supports the broad strategic goals in accelerator science and technology within the OHEP. While the US accelerator-based HEP program is oriented toward the Intensity Frontier, which requires modern superconducting linear accelerators and advanced highintensity storage rings, there are no accelerator test facilities that support the accelerator science of the Intensity Frontier. Further, nearly all proposed future accelerators for Discovery Science will rely on superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) acceleration, yet there are no dedicated test facilities to study SRF capabilities for beam acceleration and manipulation in prototypic conditions. Finally, there are a wide range of experiments and research programs beyond particle physics that require the unique beam parameters that will only be available at Fermilab’s Advanced Superconducting Test Accelerator (ASTA). To address these needs we submit this proposal for an Accelerator R&D User Facility at ASTA. The ASTA program is based on the capability provided by an SRF linac (which provides electron beams from 50 MeV to nearly 1 GeV) and a small storage ring (with the ability to store either electrons or protons) to enable a broad range of beam-based experiments to study fundamental limitations to beam intensity and to develop transformative approaches to particle-beam generation, acceleration and manipulation which cannot be done elsewhere. It will also establish a unique resource for R&D towards Energy Frontier facilities and a test-bed for SRF accelerators and high brightness beam applications in support of the OHEP mission of Accelerator Stewardship.