First BTF Measurements at the Large Hadron Collider

Abstract

During the Run I in 2012, several instabilities have been observed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during the Betatron squeeze. The predictions of instability thresholds are based on the computation of the beam Landau damping by calculating the Stability Diagrams (SD). These instabilities could be explained by a deterioration of the SD due to beam-beam resonance excitation which could change the particle distributions. Beam Transfer Functions (BTF) provide a measurement of the Stability Diagram. The BTFs are sensitive to the particle detuning with amplitude as well as to the particle distributions therefore they represent a powerful tool to understand experimentally the stability of beams during the LHC operational cycle. First BTF measurements at the LHC are presented for different machine configurations and settings and compared to predictions