The Fermilab Booster is being upgraded under the Proton Improvement Plan (PIP) to be capable of providing a proton flux of $2.25^{17}$ protons per hour. The intensity per cycle will remain at the present operational $4.3^{12}$ protons per pulse, however the Booster beam cycle rate is going to be increased from 7.5 Hz to 15 Hz. One of the biggest challenges is to maintain the present beam loss power while the doubling the beam flux. Under PIP, there has been a large effort in beam studies and simulations to better understand the mechanisms of the beam loss. The goal is to reduce it by half by correcting and controlling the beam dynamics and by improving operational systems through hardware upgrades. This paper is going to present the recent beam study results and status of the Booster operations.

The Tevatron low- beta lattice that allows operation of two independent low- beta insertions is described. The measurement of the beta functions at various locations near the interaction region of the B0 and comparisons to theoretical calculations are reported.< >

The upgraded Tevatron collider has two new matched low beta insertions and operates with electrostatic separators to have different orbits for the proton and pbar beams. A general-purpose application program has been developed which allows the operator to control approximately 200 function generators and associated timers to commission, tune, and operate the machine. The program and relevant aspects of the Fermilab controls environment are discussed.<>

Results of the continuing analysis of the nonlinear dynamics experiment, E778, are presented. Sixteen special sextupoles introduced nonlinearities in the Tevatron. Smear, which is one of the parameters used to quantify the degree of nonlinearity, was extracted from the data and compared with calculation. Injection efficiency in the presence of nonlinearities was studied. Measurements of the dynamic aperture were performed. The final results in one degree of freedom of the smear, the injection efficiency, and the dynamic aperture are presented. Particles captured on nonlinear resonance islands were directly observed and measurements were taken. The capture efficiency was extracted from the data and compared with prediction. The influence of tune modulation on the stability of these islands was investigated. Plans for future measurements are discussed