The Very Low 1-9 GeV/c Tertiary Beam Extension of the H8 Beam Line of CERN SPS

The H8 beam line on the North Area of CERN SPS is a multipurpose experimental secondary particle beam able to transport particles of various types (hadrons, electrons, muons and ions) in a large momentum range from 10 GeV/c up to the top SPS energy (400 or 450 GeV/C). During the 2003-2004 shutdown the beam line was modified in order to accommodate a new tertiary beam line, able to produce and transport particles in the momentum range of 1 to 9 GeV/c. Such low momentum hadron and electron particle beams are requested by the LHC experiments in order to calibrate various sub-detector systems. The design and first performance results from this new tertiary beam are described here.