UA9 apparatus for testing beam merging

Abstract The UA9 Collaboration has used a high-resolution silicon-strip telescope and a high-precision goniometer to investigate coherent and incoherent crystal-particle interactions in the North Experimental Area of the CERN SPS. Over the last fifteen years, a multitude of observations have provided a solid understanding of the revealed process, fostering the development of fundamentally novel and useful applications for particle accelerators, such as crystal-assisted collimation in the LHC collider and crystal-aided extraction in the SPS synchrotron. The UA9 setup has recently been modified to test a two-beam merging process assisted by bent crystals, a complex beam manipulation proposed to merge the bunch intensity of two converging beams. The existing setup has been upgraded to include three bent crystals, each with its angular actuator, and six silicon strip stations. Such a brand new configuration is able to generate two converging beams along the H8 experimental line, observe their intersection into a third bent crystal, and characterize the subsequent formation of the merged beam. The parameters of the proposed layout and preliminary data demonstrating its performance are discussed.