Giuseppe Bregliozzi

First LHC transverse beam size measurements with the beam gas vertex detector

The Beam Gas Vertex detector (BGV) is an innovative beam profile monitor based on the reconstruction of beam-gas interaction vertices which is being developed as part of the High Luminosity LHC project. Tracks are identified using several planes of scintillating fibres, located outside the beam vacuum chamber and perpendicular to the beam axis. The gas pressure in the interaction volume is adjusted such as to provide an adequate trigger rate, without disturbing the beam. A BGV demonstrator monitoring one of the two LHC beams was fully installed and commissioned in 2016. First data and beam size measurements show that the complete detector and data acquisition system is operating as expected. The BGV operating parameters are now being optimised and the reconstruction algorithms developed to produce accurate and fast reconstruction on a CPU farm in order to provide real time beam profile measurements to the LHC operators.

Operational experience of the upgraded LHC injection kicker magnets during Run 2 and future plans

During Run 1 of the LHC, one of the injection kicker magnets caused occasional operational delays due to beam induced heating with high bunch intensity and short bunch lengths. In addition, there were also sporadic issues with vacuum activity and electrical flashover of the injection kickers. An extensive program of studies was launched and significant upgrades were carried out during Long Shutdown 1 (LS 1). These upgrades included a new design of beam screen to reduce both beam coupling impedance of the kicker magnet and to the electric field associated with the screen conductors, hence decreasing the probability of electrical breakdown in this region. This paper presents operational experience of the injection kicker magnets during the first years of Run 2 of the LHC, including a discussion of faults and kicker magnet issues that limited LHC operation. In addition, in light of these issues, plans for further upgrades are briefly discussed.

Vacuum Performance of Amorphous Carbon Coating at Cryogenic Temperature with Presence of Proton Beams

Amorphous carbon (a-C) coating is the baseline electron multipacting mitigation strategy proposed for the Inner Triplets (IT) in the High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). As of 2014, the COLD bore EXperiment (COLDEX) is qualifying the performance of a-C coating at cryogenic temperature in a LHC type cryogenic vacuum system. In this paper, the experimental results following a cryogenic vacuum characterization of a-C coating in the 5 to 150 K temperature range are reviewed. We discuss the dynamic pressure rise, gas composition, dissipated heat load and electron activity observed within an accumulated beam time of 9 Ah. The results of dedicated experiments including pre-adsorption of different gas species (H2, CO) on the a-C coating are discussed. Based of phenomenological modeling, up-todate secondary emission input parameters for a-C coatings are retrieved for electron cloud build-up simulations. Finally, first implications for the HL-LHC ITs design are drawn.