B. Goddard

Proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration: a path to the future of high-energy particle physics

New acceleration technology is mandatory for the future elucidation of fundamental particles and their interactions. A promising approach is to exploit the properties of plasmas. Past research has focused on creating large-amplitude plasma waves by injecting an intense laser pulse or an electron bunch into the plasma. However, the maximum energy gain of electrons accelerated in a single plasma stage is limited by the energy of the driver. Proton bunches are the most promising drivers of wakefields to accelerate electrons to the TeV energy scale in a single stage. An experimental program at CERN—the AWAKE experiment—has been launched to study in detail the important physical processes and to demonstrate the power of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration. Here we review the physical principles and some experimental considerations for a future proton-driven plasma wakefield accelerator.

Protection of the CERN Large Hadron Collider

TheLargeHadronCollider(LHC)atCERNwillcollidetwocounter- rotating proton beams, each with an energy of 7TeV. The energy stored in the superconducting magnet system will exceed 10GJ, and each beam has a stored energy of 362MJ which could cause major damage to accelerator equipment in the case of uncontrolled beam loss. Safe operation of the LHC will therefore rely on a complex system for equipment protection. The systems for protection of the superconducting magnets in case of quench must be fully operational before powering the magnets. For safe injection of the 450GeV beam into the LHC, beam absorbers must be in their correct positions and specific procedures must be applied. Requirements for safe operation throughout the cycle necessitate early detection of failures within the equipment, and active monitoring of the beam with fast and reliable beam instrumentation, mainly beam loss monitors (BLM). When operating with circulating beams, the time constant for beam loss after a failureextendsfrom ≈mstoafewminutes—failuresmustbedetectedsufficiently early and transmitted to the beam interlock system that triggers a beam dump. It is essential that the beams are properly extracted on to the dump blocks at the end of a fill and in case of emergency, since the beam dump blocks are the only elements of the LHC that can withstand the impact of the full beam.

BEAM LOSS SCENARIOS AND STRATEGIES FOR MACHINE PROTECTION AT THE LHC

At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with nominal parameters at 7 TeV, each proton beam has an energy of more than 330 MJ threatening to damage accelerator equipment in case of uncontrolled beam loss. To prevent such damage, kickers are fired in case of failure deflecting the beams into dump blocks. The dump blocks are the only elements that can safely absorb the beams without damage. The time constant for particle losses depends on the specific failure and ranges from microseconds to several seconds. Starting with some typical failure scenarios, the strategy for the protection during LHC beam operation is illustrated. The systems designed to ensure safe operation, such as beam dump, beam instruments, collimators / absorbers and interlocks are discussed.

160 MeV H - injection into the CERN PSB

The H- beam from the proposed LINAC4 will be injected into the four existing rings of the PS Booster at 160 MeV. A substantial upgrade of the injection region is required, including the modification of the beam distribution system and the construction of a new H- injection system. This paper discusses beam dynamics and hardware requirements and presents the results of optimisation studies of the injection process for different beam characteristics and scenarios. The resulting conceptual design of the injection region is presented, together with the main hardware modifications and performance specifications.

Collimation in the Transfer Lines to the LHC

Injection intensities for the LHC are over an order of magnitude above damage level. The TI 2 and TI 8 transfer lines between the SPS and LHC are each about 2.5 km long and comprise many active elements running in pulsed mode. The collimation system in the transfer lines is designed to dilute the beam energy sufficiently in case of accidental beam loss or mis-steered beam. A system using three collimator families spaced by 60 degrees in phase advance, both in the horizontal and the vertical plane has been chosen. We discuss the reasons for this choice, the layout and, the expected performance of the system in terms of maximum amplitudes and energy deposition.

Designing and building a collimation system for the high-intensity LHC beam

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will collide proton beams at 14 TeV c.m. with unprecedented stored intensities. The transverse energy density in the beam will be about three orders of magnitude larger than previously handled in the Tevatron or in HERA, if compared at the locations of the betatron collimators. In particular, the population in the beam halo is much above the quench level of the superconducting magnets. Two LHC insertions are dedicated to collimation with the design goals of preventing magnet quenches in regular operation and preventing damage to accelerator components in case of irregular beam loss. We discuss the challenges for designing and building a collimation system that withstands the high power LHC beam and provides the required high cleaning efficiency. Plans for future work are outlined.

Performance potential of the injectors after LS1

The main upgrades of the injector chain in the framework of the LIU Project will only be implemented in the second long shutdown (LS2), in particular the increase of the PSB-PS transfer energy to 2GeV or the implementation of cures/solutions against instabilities/e-cloud effects etc. in the SPS. On the other hand, Linac4 will become available by the end of 2014. Until the end of 2015 it may replace Linac2 at short notice, taking 50MeV protons into the PSB via the existing injection system but with reduced performance. Afterwards, the H− injection equipment will be ready and Linac4 could be connected for 160MeV H− injection into the PSB during a prolonged winter shutdown before LS2. The anticipated beam performance of the LHC injectors after LS1 in these different cases is presented. Space charge on the PS flat-bottom will remain a limitation because the PSB-PS transfer energy will stay at 1.4GeV. As a mitigation measure new RF manipulations are presented which can improve brightness for 25 ns bunch spacing, allowing for more than nominal luminosity in the LHC.

Injection and extraction magnets: septa

An accelerator has limited dynamic range: a chain of accelerators is required to reach high energy. A combination of septa and kicker magnets is frequently used to inject and extract beam from each stage. The kicker magnets typically produce rectangular field pulses with fast riseand/or falltimes, however the field strength is relatively low. To compensate for their relatively low field strength, the kicker magnets are generally combined with electromagnetic septa. The septa provide relatively strong field strength but are either DC or slow pulsed. This paper discusses injection and extraction systems with particular emphasis on the hardware required for the septa.

HOW TO MAXIMIZE THE HL-LHC PERFORMANCE *

This contribution presents an overview of the parameter space for the HL-LHC [1] upgrade options that would maximize the LHC performance after LS3. The analysis is assuming the baseline HL-LHC upgrade options including among others, 25ns spacing, LIU [2] parameters, large aperture triplet and matching-section magnets, as well as crab cavities. The analysis then focuses on illustrations of the transmission efficiency of the LIU beam parameters from the injection process to stable conditions for physics, the minimization of the luminous region volume while preserving at the same time the separation of multiple vertices, the luminosity control mechanisms to extend the duration of the most efficient data taking conditions together with the associated concerns (machine efficiency, beam instabilities, halo population, cryogenic load, and beam dump frequency) and risks (failure scenarios, and radiation damage). In conclusion the expected integrated luminosity per fill and year is presented.

Beam Stability of the LHC Beam Transfer Line TI 8

Injection of beam into the LHC at 450 GeV/c proceeds over two 2.7 km long transfer lines from the SPS. The small aperture of the LHC at injection imposes tight constraints on the stability of the beam transfer. The first transfer line TI 8 was commissioned in the fall of 2004 with low intensity beam. Since the beam position monitor signal fluctuations were dominated by noise with low intensity beam, the beam stability could not be obtained from a simple comparison of consecutive trajectories. Instead model independent analysis (MIA) techniques as well as scraping on collimators were used to estimate the intrinsic stability of the transfer line. This paper presents the analysis methods and the resulting stability estimates.