Electron cooling increases the phase space density of the cooled particles
up to a certain limit. This limit is normally characterized by a strong spa
ce charge tune shift, about 0.2-0.3. This tune shift is high enough to brin
g the cooled beam to the threshold of the envelope instability. The envelop
e instability can be in a kind of dynamic equilibrium with the cooling, kee
ping the cooled beam at a threshold with a high level of the coherent noise
. This noise acts as a diffusion for the halo particles which puts a limit
on the stored current. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.