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

Trim Magnet Polarities, Dispersion, and Response Data in Sector 23

During the first LHC injection test, on 10 August 2008, the horizontal dispersion measured with beam 1 at the end of Sector 23 differed from the model prediction close to point 3. Beam-based polarity checks performed during the same period indicated an inversion of the trim quadrupole QTL11.R2. Combined with other evidence, like electrical drawings and earlier Hall-probe measurements of warm magnets, this gave rise to the hypothesis of a systematic error. Indeed a model inversion of all trim quadrupoles (QT or QTL) attached to a defocusing main quadrupole (actually the odd-numbered trim quadrupoles in Sector 23) reproduced the dispersion measurement. An analysis of kick-response measurements independently revealed an optics error left of point 3, and confirmed the inversion of the odd-numbered trim quadrupoles in this sector. After changing the polarity of the suspected set of quadrupoles prior to the second injection test on August 24, the measured dispersion nicely traced the model prediction

The Sound of Sonoluminescence

We consider an air bubble in water under conditions of single bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL) and evaluate the emitted sound field nonperturbatively for subsonic gas-liquid interface motion. Sound emission being the dominant damping mechanism, we also implement the nonperturbative sound damping in the Rayleigh-Plesset equation for the interface motion. We evaluate numerically the sound pulse emitted during bubble collapse and compare the nonperturbative and perturbative results, showing that the usual perturbative description leads to an overestimate of the maximal surface velocity and maximal sound pressure. The radius vs. time relation for a full SBSL cycle remains deceptively unaffected.Comment: 25 pages; LaTex and 6 attached ps figure files. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Dynamic beam based calibration of orbit monitors at LEP

The offsets of the beam position monitors (BOM) with respect to the centre of the quadrupoles were determined for 16 wide band electronic and 18 narrow band electronic monitors. The first are located near to the IPs and the latter are in all other parts. The distribution of the wide band monitor offsets at the low beta focusing quadrupole magnets has a mean value of 1000 µm and a width of s = 600 mm. The offsets are almost identical with the beam position of the orbit which allows to obtain highest luminosity. The distribution of the narrow band monitor offsets has a mean value of 19 mm and a width of s = 245 mm

Feed forward in the LHC

The LHC operational cycle is comprised of several phases such as the ramp, the squeeze and stable beams. During the ramp and squeeze in particular, it has been ob- served that the behaviour of key LHC beam parameters such as tune, orbit and chromaticity is highly reproducible from fill to fill. To reduce the reliance on the crucial feed- back systems, it was decided to perform fill-to-fill feed- forward corrections. The LHC feed-forward application was developed to ease the introduction of corrections to the operational settings. The LHC Feed-Forward software has been used during LHC commissioning and tune and orbit corrections during ramp and squeeze have been suc- cessfully applied. As a result, the required real-time cor- rections for the above parameters have been reduced to a minimum. In parallel, successful trials have been made to apply feedforward corrections before commissioning with beam which are based on M AD - X simulation scans over the unused setting functions. In this paper we present the evolution of feedforward for the LHC and discuss further improvements of this software