Towards higher intensities
Over the past 2 weeks, commissioning of the machine protection system has advanced significantly, opening up the possibility of higher intensity collisions at 3.5 TeV. The intensity has been increased from 2 bunches of 1010 protons to 6 bunches of 2x1010 protons. Luminosities of 6x1028 cm-2s-1 have been achieved at the start of fills, a factor of 60 higher than those provided for the first collisions on 30 March.
![](http://cds.cern.ch/record/1266273/files/icon-LuminosityPlot2_image.png)
The recent increase in LHC luminosity as recorded by the experiments.
(Graph courtesy of the experiments and M. Ferro-Luzzi)
Single bunches of nominal intensity are now being accelerated with very good lifetimes. The collimator set-up is being refined and made more accurate for higher intensity bunches at 3.5 TeV in preparation for higher luminosity collisions in the coming weeks.