A Beam Quality Monitor for LHC Beams in the SPS

The SPS Beam Quality Monitor (BQM) system monitors the longitudinal parameters of the beam before extraction to the LHC to prevent losses and degradation of the LHC luminosity by the injection of low quality beams. It is implemented in two priority levels. At the highest level the SPS-LHC synchronization and global beam structure are verified. If the specifications are not met, the beam should be dumped in the SPS before extraction. On the second level, individual bunch position, length and stability are checked for beam quality assessment. Tolerances are adapted to the mode of operation and extraction to the LHC can also be inhibited. Beam parameters are accessed by acquiring bunch profiles with a longitudinal pick up and fast digital oscilloscope. The beam is monitored for instabilities during the acceleration cycle and thoroughly checked a few ms before extraction for a final decision on extraction interlock. Dedicated hardware and software components implementing fast algorithms are required. In this paper the fast algorithms are presented

An Error-Correcting Line Code for a HEP Rad-Hard Multi-GigaBit Optical Link

This paper presents a line encoding scheme designed for the GBT ASIC, a transceiver under development for a multigigabit optical link upgrade of the TTC system. A general overview of issues related to optical links placed in radiation environments is given, and the required properties of the line code discussed. A scheme that preserves the DC-balance of the line and allows forward error correction is proposed. It is implemented through the concatenation of scrambling, a Reed-Solomon error-correction scheme and the addition of an error-tolerant DC-balanced header. The properties of the code are verified for two different interleaving options, which achieve different error correction capability at different implementation costs. One of the two options was implemented in a fully digital ASIC fabricated in a 0.13 μm CMOS technology, and ASIC implementation details and test results are reported

Observations of beam-beam effects at the LHC

This paper introduces a list of observations related to the beam-beam interaction that were collected over the first years of LHC proton physics operation (2010-12). Beam-beam related effects not only have been extensively observed and recorded, but have also shaped the operation of the LHC for high-intensity proton running in a number of ways: the construction of the filling scheme, the choice of luminosity levelling techniques, measures to mitigate instabilities, and the choice of settings for improving performance (e.g. to reduce losses), among others.Comment: Presented at the ICFA Mini-Workshop on Beam-Beam in Hadron Colliders, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 18-22 March 201

Synchronous Phase Shift at LHC

The electron cloud in vacuum pipes of accelerators of positively charged particle beams causes a beam energy loss which could be estimated from the synchronous phase. Measurements done with beams of 75 ns, 50 ns, and 25 ns bunch spacing in the LHC for some fills in 2010 and 2011 show that the average energy loss depends on the total beam intensity in the ring. Later measurements during the scrubbing run with 50 ns beams show the reduction of the electron cloud due to scrubbing. Finally, measurements of the individual bunch phase give us information about the electron cloud build-up inside the batch and from batch to batch.Comment: Presented at ECLOUD'12: Joint INFN-CERN-EuCARD-AccNet Workshop on Electron-Cloud Effects, La Biodola, Isola d'Elba, Italy, 5-9 June 201

Coherent beam-beam mode in the LHC

Observations of single bunch beam-beam coherent modes during dedicated experiments in the LHC are presented. Their role in standard operation for physics is discussed and, in particular, candidates of beam-beam coherent mode driven unstable by the machine impedance are presented.Comment: 4 pages, contribution to the ICFA Mini-Workshop on Beam-Beam Effects in Hadron Colliders, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 18-22 Mar 201

Long Range Beam-beam Effects in the LHC

We report on the experience with long-range beam--beam effects in the LHC, in dedicated studies as well as the experience from operation. Where possible, we compare the observations with the expectations.Comment: Presented at the ICFA Mini-Workshop on Beam-Beam in Hadron Colliders, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 18-22 March 201

Cleaning data with Llunatic

Data cleaning (or data repairing) is considered a crucial problem in many database-related tasks. It consists in making a database consistent with respect to a given set of constraints. In recent years, repairing methods have been proposed for several classes of constraints. These methods, however, tend to hard-code the strategy to repair conflicting values and are specialized toward specific classes of constraints. In this paper, we develop a general chase-based repairing framework, referred to as Llunatic, in which repairs can be obtained for a large class of constraints and by using different strategies to select preferred values. The framework is based on an elegant formalization in terms of labeled instances and partially ordered preference labels. In this context, we revisit concepts such as upgrades, repairs and the chase. In Llunatic, various repairing strategies can be slotted in, without the need for changing the underlying implementation. Furthermore, Llunatic is the first data repairing system which is DBMS-based. We report experimental results that confirm its good scalability and show that various instantiations of the framework result in repairs of good quality

Longitudinal beam parameters and quality checks of the LHC beam in the SPS: further results and comparisons

Controlled longitudinal emittance blow up is used, along with other measures, to stabilize the nominal LHC beam in the SPS. Two Machine Development studies (MDs) were carried out in 2007 to evaluate the effectiveness of different noise settings for the longitudinal blow up of the beam. The noise settings are affected by both the presence of the 800 MHz RF system and intensity effects which modify the synchrotron frequency distribution inside the bunch. The results for the first MD are reported in Note [1]. This Note reports on the results of the second MD, carried out on 2007-10-17, as well as the comparison between the two in order to analyse the differences between the two occasions. Figures of merit are used that allow rapid evaluation of the quality of the beam as for example stability and bunch length uniformity across batches

Study of Controlled Longitudinal Emittance Blow-Up for High Intensity LHC Beams in the CERN SPS

Preventive longitudinal emittance blow-up, in addition to a fourth harmonic Landau damping RF system, is required to keep the LHC beam in the SPS stable up to extraction. The beam is blown-up in a controlled way during the acceleration ramp by using band-limited phase noise targeted to act inside the synchrotron frequency spread, which is itself modified both by the second RF system and by intensity effects (beam loading and others). For a high intensity beam these latter effects can lead to a non-uniform emittance blow-up and even loss of stability for certain bunches in the batch. In this paper we present studies of the emittance blow-up achieved with high intensity beams under different conditions of both RF and noise parameters