Experimental results of crystal-assisted slow extraction at the SPS

The possibility of extracting highly energetic particles from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) by means of silicon bent crystals has been explored since the 1990's. The channelling effect of a bent crystal can be used to strongly deflect primary protons and eject them from the synchrotron. Many studies and experiments have been carried out to investigate crystal channelling effects. The extraction of 120 and 270 GeV proton beams has already been demonstrated in the SPS with dedicated experiments located in the ring. Presently in the SPS, the UA9 experiment is performing studies to evaluate the possibility to use bent silicon crystals to steer particle beams in high energy accelerators. Recent studies on the feasibility of extraction from the SPS have been made using the UA9 infrastructure with a longer-term view of using crystals to help mitigate slow extraction induced activation of the SPS. In this paper, the possibility to eject particles into the extraction channel in LSS2 using the bent crystals already installed in the SPS is presented. Details of the concept, simulations and measurements carried out with beam are presented, before the outlook for the future is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, submitted to to International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC) 2017 in Copenhagen, Denmar

Commissioning of the Control System for the LHC Beam Dump Kicker System

The beam dumping system of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) provides a loss-free fast extraction of the circulating beams. It consists per ring of 15 extraction kickers, followed by 15 septum magnets, 10 dilution kickers and an external absorber. A dump request can occur at any moment during the operation of the collider, from injection energy up to collision energy. All kickers must fire synchronously with the beam abort gap to properly extract the whole beam in one single turn into the extraction channel. Incorrect operation of the extraction kickers can lead to beam losses and severe damage to the machine. The control system of the LHC beam dump kickers is based on a modular architecture composed of 4 different sub-systems, each with a specific function, in order to detect internal failures, to ensure a correct extraction trajectory over the whole LHC operational range, to synchronise and distribute dumps requests, and to analyse the transient signals recorded during the beam dumping process. The control architecture is presented and the different steps performed for its validation, from the individual sub-systems tests to the final commissioning with beam, are describe

Optics Flexibility and Dispersion Matching at Injection into the LHC

The LHC requires very precise matching of transfer line and LHC optics to minimise emittance blow-up and tail repopulation at injection. The recent addition of a comprehensive transfer line collimation system to improve the protection against beam loss has created additional matching constraints and consumed a significant part of the flexibility contained in the initial optics design of the transfer lines. Optical errors, different injection configurations and possible future optics changes require however to preserve a certain tuning range. Here we present methods of tuning optics parameters at the injection point by using orbit correctors in the main ring, with the emphasis on dispersion matching. The benefit of alternative measures to enhance the flexibility is briefly discussed

LHC Abort Gap Cleaning with the Transverse Damper

In the Large Hadron Collider, LHC, particles not captured by the RF system at injection or leaking out of the RF bucket may quench the superconducting magnets during beam abort. The problem, common to other superconducting machines, is particularly serious for the LHC due to the very large stored energy in the beam. For the LHC a way of removing the unbunched beam has been studied and it uses the existing damper kickers to excite resonantly the particles travelling along the abort gap. In this paper we describe the results of simulations performed with MAD X for various LHC optics configurations, including the estimated multipolar errors

Commissioning of the CNGS Extraction in SPS LSS4

The CNGS project (CERN Neutrino to Gran Sasso) aims at directly detecting νμ - Î½Ï oscillations. For this purpose an intense νμ beam is generated at CERN and directed towards LNGS (Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso) in Italy, about 730 km from CERN. The neutrinos are generated from the decay of pions and kaons which are produced by 400 GeV protons hitting a graphite target. The protons are extracted from the SPS straight section 4 (LSS4) in two 10.5 ï­s batches, nominally 2.4 Ñ 1013 protons each, at an interval of 50 ms. The high intensity extracted beam can cause damage to equipment if lost in an uncontrolled way, with the extraction elements particularly at risk. In addition, the beam losses at extraction must be very well controlled to avoid unacceptably high levels of radiation. To guarantee safe operation and limit radiation, the LSS4 extraction system was thoroughly commissioned with beam during the CNGS commissioning in summer 2006. The obtained results in terms of aperture in the extraction channel, longitudinal loss patterns, extraction losses and radiation during nominal operation are summarised in this note

Determination of the Chromaticity of the TI 8 Transfer Line Based on Kick Response Measurements

The 3 km long TI 8 transfer line is used to transfer 450 GeV proton and ion beams from the SPS to LHC collider. As part of a detailed optics investigation program the chromaticity of the transfer line was measured. Kick response data of the transfer line was recorded for various extraction energy offsets in the SPS. The quadrupolar and sextupolar field errors (b2 and b3, respectively) over the whole transfer line dipoles, a systematic error of the main quadrupole strengths and the initial momentum error were estimated by a fit. Using the updated model, the chromaticity of the line was then calculated

Beam commissioning of injection into the LHC

The LHC injection tests and first turn beam commissioning took place in late summer 2008, after detailed and thorough preparation. The beam commissioning of the downstream sections of the SPS-to-LHC transfer lines and the LHC injection systems is described. The details of the aperture measurements in the injection regions are presented together with the performance of the injection related equipment. The measured injection stability is compared to the expectations. The operational issues encountered are discussed

Experience with the LHC beam dump post-operational checks system

After each beam dump in the LHC automatic post-operational checks are made to guarantee that the last beam dump has been executed correctly and that the system can be declared to be ‘as good as new’ before the next injection is allowed. The analysis scope comprises the kicker waveforms, redundancy in kicker generator signal paths and different beam instrumentation measurements. This paper describes the implementation and the operational experience of the internal and external post-operational checks of the LHC beam dumping system during the commissioning of the LHC without beam and during the first days of beam operation

Biomarkers of Host Response Predict Primary End-Point Radiological Pneumonia in Tanzanian Children with Clinical Pneumonia: A Prospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosing pediatric pneumonia is challenging in low-resource settings. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined primary end-point radiological pneumonia for use in epidemiological and vaccine studies. However, radiography requires expertise and is often inaccessible. We hypothesized that plasma biomarkers of inflammation and endothelial activation may be useful surrogates for end-point pneumonia, and may provide insight into its biological significance. METHODS: We studied children with WHO-defined clinical pneumonia (n = 155) within a prospective cohort of 1,005 consecutive febrile children presenting to Tanzanian outpatient clinics. Based on x-ray findings, participants were categorized as primary end-point pneumonia (n = 30), other infiltrates (n = 31), or normal chest x-ray (n = 94). Plasma levels of 7 host response biomarkers at presentation were measured by ELISA. Associations between biomarker levels and radiological findings were assessed by Kruskal-Wallis test and multivariable logistic regression. Biomarker ability to predict radiological findings was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and Classification and Regression Tree analysis. RESULTS: Compared to children with normal x-ray, children with end-point pneumonia had significantly higher C-reactive protein, procalcitonin and Chitinase 3-like-1, while those with other infiltrates had elevated procalcitonin and von Willebrand Factor and decreased soluble Tie-2 and endoglin. Clinical variables were not predictive of radiological findings. Classification and Regression Tree analysis generated multi-marker models with improved performance over single markers for discriminating between groups. A model based on C-reactive protein and Chitinase 3-like-1 discriminated between end-point pneumonia and non-end-point pneumonia with 93.3% sensitivity (95% confidence interval 76.5-98.8), 80.8% specificity (72.6-87.1), positive likelihood ratio 4.9 (3.4-7.1), negative likelihood ratio 0.083 (0.022-0.32), and misclassification rate 0.20 (standard error 0.038). CONCLUSIONS: In Tanzanian children with WHO-defined clinical pneumonia, combinations of host biomarkers distinguished between end-point pneumonia, other infiltrates, and normal chest x-ray, whereas clinical variables did not. These findings generate pathophysiological hypotheses and may have potential research and clinical utility