Using the transverse digital damper as a real-time tune monitor for the Booster synchrotron at Fermilab

The Fermilab Booster is a fast ramping (15Hz) synchrotron which accelerates protons from 400MeV to 8GeV. During commissioning of a transverse digital damper system, it was shown that the damper could provide a measurement of the machine tune throughout the cycle by exciting just 1 of the 84 bunches with minimal impact on the machine operation. The algorithms used to make the measurement have been incorporated into the damper FPGA firmware allowing for real-time tune monitoring of all Booster cycles.