CERN, Geneva
University of Malta, Faculty of Engineering, Msida
The relation between field and current in each family of the Large Hadron Collider magnets is modeled with a set of empirical equations (FiDeL) whose free parameters are fitted on magnetic measurements. They take into account of residual magnetization, persistent currents, hysteresis, saturation, decay and snapback during initial part of the ramp. Here we give a first summary of the reconstruction of the magnetic field properties based on the beam observables (orbit, tune, coupling, chromaticity) and a comparison with the expectations based on the large set of magnetic measurements carried out during the 5-years-long production. The most critical issues for the machine performance in terms of knowledge of the relation magnetic field vs current are pinned out.
CERN, Geneva
MADX (Methodical Accelerator Design) is the de-facto standard software for modeling accelerator lattices at CERN. This feature-rich software package is implemented and maintained in the programming languages C and FORTRAN. Nevertheless the controls environment of modern accelerators at CERN, e.g. of the LHC, is dominated by JAVA applications. A lot of these applications, for example for lattice measurement and fitting, require a close interaction with the numerical models, which are all defined by the use of the proprietary MADX scripting language. To close this gap an API to MADX for the JAVA programming language (JMAD) was developed. Already the current implementation provides access to a large subset of the MADX capabilities (e.g. twiss-calculations, matching or querying and setting arbitrary model parameters) without any necessity to define the models in yet another environment. This paper describes shortly the design of this project as well as the current status and some usage examples.
CERN, Geneva
The mechanical aperture of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a critical parameter for the operation of the machine due to the high stored beam intensities in the superconducting environment. Betatron and momentum apertures must be therefore precisely measured and optimized. In this paper, we present the results of beam-based measurements of the LHC aperture. The experimental results are compared with the expectations from the as-built model of the LHC aperture, taking into account the optics imperfections of the superconducting magnets. The impact of these measurements on various aspects of the LHC operation are also discussed.
CERN, Geneva
EPFL, Lausanne
The control of the high intensity beams of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is particular challenging and requires a precise knowledge of the critical beam and machine parameters. In recent years efforts were devoted to the design of a software infrastructure aimed at mimicking the behavior of the LHC. An online model of the machine, based on the accelerator design tool MADX, has been developed to support the commissioning and the operation of the LHC. This model is integrated into the JAVA-based LHC software framework and provides the full computing power of MADX, including the best knowledge of the machine aperture and magnetic models. The MADX implementation is server-based and provides various facilities for optics computation to other application clients. In this paper, we present the status of the MADX online application and illustrate how it has been used during the LHC commissioning. Possible future implementations are also discussed.
CERN, Geneva
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York
During the 2009 LHC injection tests, the polarities and effects of specific quadrupole and higher-order magnetic circuits were investigated. A set of magnet circuits had been selected for detailed investigation based on a number of criteria. On or off-momentum difference trajectories launched via appropriate orbit correctors for varying strength settings of the magnet circuits under study - e.g. main, trim and skew quadrupoles; sextupole families and spool piece correctors; skew sextupoles, octupoles - were compared with predictions from various optics models. These comparisons allowed confirming or updating the relative polarity conventions used in the optics model and the accelerator control system, as well as verifying the correct powering and assignment of magnet families. Results from measurements in several LHC sectors are presented.
CERN, Geneva
The movable LHC injection protection devices in the SPS to LHC transfer lines and downstream of the injection kicker in the LHC were commissioned with low-intensity beam. The different beam-based alignment measurements used to determine the beam centre and size are described, together with the results of measurements of the transverse beam distribution at large amplitude. The system was set up with beam to its nominal settings and the protection level against various failures was determined by measuring the transmission and transverse distribution into the LHC as a function of oscillation amplitude. Beam losses levels for regular operation were also extrapolated. The results are compared with the expected device settings and protection level, and the implications for LHC operation discussed.
CERN, Geneva
After the incident on the 19th September 2008 and more than one year without beam the commissioning of the LHC started again on November 20, 2009. Progress was rapid and collisions under stable beam conditions were established at 1.2 TeV within 3 weeks. In 2010 after qualification of the new quench protection system the way to 3.5 TeV was open and collisions were delivered at this energy after a month of additional commissioning. This paper describes the experiences and issues encountered during these first periods of commissioning with beam.
CERN, Geneva
Following the LHC injection tests of 2008, two injection tests took place in October and November 2009 as preparation for the LHC restart on November 20, 2009. During these injection tests beam was injected through the TI2 transfer line into sector 23 of ring 1 and through TI8 into the sectors 78, 67 and 56 of ring 2. The beam time was dedicated to injection steering, optics measurements and debugging of all the systems involved. Because many potential problems were sorted out in advance, these tests contributed to the rapid progress after the restart. This paper describes the experiences and issues encountered during these tests as well as related measurement results.
CERN, Geneva
IHEP Protvino, Protvino, Moscow Region
TRIUMF, Vancouver
The LHC has two dedicated cleaning insertions: IR3 for momentum cleaning and IR7 for betatron cleaning. The collimation system has been specified and built with tight mechanical tolerances (e.g. jaw flatness ~ 40 μm) and is designed to achieve a high accuracy and reproducibility of the jaw positions. The practically achievable cleaning efficiency of the present Phase-I system depends on the precision of the jaw centering around the beam, the accuracy of the gap size and the jaw parallelism against the beam. The reproducibility and stability of the system is important to avoid the frequent repetition of beam based alignment which is currently a lengthy procedure. Within this paper we describe the method used for the beam based alignment of the LHC collimation system, its achieved accuracy and stability and its performance at 450GeV.