Tomás, R Fartoukh, S Serrano, J 2008 2008 The AC dipole in the LHC will not only provide transverse oscillations without emittance growth but also with a safety guarantee. These two features are due to the adiabaticity of the excitation. However chromaticity and nonlinear fields spoil this adiabaticity. This paper assesses the margins of the relevant beam observables for a reliable and safe operation of AC dipoles in the LHC. Letnes, P A Pedersen, S Brielmann, A Burkhardt, H Kramer, Daniel 2008 2008 Fast scrapers are installed in the SPS to detect and remove beam halo before extraction of beams to the LHC, to minimize the probability for quenching of superconducting magnets in the LHC. We shortly describe the current system and then focus on our recent work, which aims at providing a system which can be used as operational tool for standard LHC injection. A new control application was written and tested with the beam. We describe the current status and results and compare these with detailed simulations. Dorda, U Caspers, Friedhelm Kroyer, T Zimmermann, F 2008 2008 The dynamic aperture of the proton beam circulating in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is expected to be limited by up to 120 long-range beam-beam encounters. In order to perfectly compensate the LHC long-range beambeam effect for nominal as well as for so-called "PACMAN" bunches, i.e. bunches at the start or end of a bunch train, the strength of a wire compensator should be adjusted for each bunch individually. Here an RF-based compensator is proposed as a practical solution for the PACMAN compensation. We show that this approach also allows relaxing the power and precision requirements compared with those of a pulsed DC device, to a level within the state-of-the-art of RF technology. Furthermore it permits the use of a passive circulator in the tunnel close to the beam and thus a significant reduction of the transmission line length and of the associated multiple reflections. Simulations of dynamic aperture and emittance growth, issues related to RF phase noise, and first experimental results from laboratory models are presented. Borgnolutti, F Brüning, Oliver Sim Dorda, U Fartoukh, S Giovannozzi, M Herr, Werner de Maria, R Meddahi, M Todesco, E Tomás, R Zimmermann, F 2008 2008 In the framework of the studies for the upgrade of the insertions of the CERN Large Hadron Collider, four optical layouts were proposed with the aim of reducing the beta-function at the collision point down to 25 cm. The different candidate layouts are presented. Results from the studies performed on mechanical and dynamic aperture are summarized, together with the evaluation of beam-beam effects. Particular emphasis is given to the comparison of the optics performance, which led to retain the most promising layouts for further development. Bruce, R Gilardoni, S Jowett, M J 2008 2008 Electromagnetic interactions between colliding heavy ions at the LHC are the sources of specific beam loss mechanisms that may quench superconducting magnets. We propose a simple yet efficient strategy to alleviate the effect of localized losses from bound-free pair production by spreading them out in several magnets by means of orbit bumps. We also consider the consequences of neutron emission by electromagnetic dissociation and show through simulations that ions modified by this process will be intercepted by the collimation system, without further modifications Santiago Gonzalez, I Zimmermann, F 2008 2008 We study the loss of Landau damping for the longitudinal plane via the "Sacherer formalism". Stability limits are calculated for several longitudinal beam distributions, in particular for two types of flat bunches, which could be of interest to the LHC upgrade. The resulting stability diagrams are computed and displayed for different azimuthal modes. A general recipe is given for calculating the threshold intensity in the case of a capacitive impedance below transition or, equivalently, for a purely inductive impedance above transition. The formalism was applied to the case of the PS Booster, as an example of space-charge impedance below transition, and to the SPS, as an example of inductive impedance above transition. Zimmermann, F Franchetti, G 2008 2008 During the passage of a proton bunch through an electron cloud, a complicated electron density modulation arises, with characteristic ring or stripe patterns that move radially outward along the bunch. We present simulation results for field-free and dipole regions, which reveal the morphology and main features of this phenomenon, explain the physical origin of the stripes in either case, and discuss the dependence on key parameters. Dorda, U Calaga, R Fischer, W Koutchouk, Jean-Pierre Tomás, R Wenninger, J Zimmermann, F 2008 2008 In order to study the effect of long range interaction and its wire compensation experimentally, current carrying wires are installed in the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). In this paper we summarize the main results of the 2007 wire excitation experiments at 26, 37 and 55 GeV including scans of wire current, beam-wire distance and chromaticity. A strong dependence on the chromaticity and indications of a threshold effect at 37 and 55 GeV were found. The results are compared with simulations, with a simple analytic scaling law and with experimental results from RHIC. Wire driven resonances have been observed through the Fourier spectrum of experimental BPM data and also studied in simulations Tomás, R Giovannozzi, M de Maria, R 2008 2008 The Phase 1 LHC Interaction Region (IR) upgrade aims at increasing the machine luminosity essentially by reducing the beam size at the Interaction Point (IP). This requires a total redesign of the full IR. A large set of options have been proposed with conceptually different designs. This paper reports on a general approach for the compensation of the multipolar errors of the IR magnets in the design phase. The goal is to use the same correction approach for the different designs. The correction algorithm is based on the minimization of the differences between the IR transfer map with errors and the design IR transfer map. Its performance is tested using the dynamic aperture as figure of merit. The relation between map coefficients and resonance terms is also given as a way to target particular resonances by selecting the right map coefficients. The dynamic aperture is studied versus magnet aperture using recently established relations between magnetic errors and magnet aperture. Roncarolo, F Caspers, Friedhelm Kroyer, T Métral, E Salvant, B 2008 2008 The prediction of the resistive wall transverse beam impedance at the first unstable betatron line (8 kHz) of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is of paramount importance for understanding and controlling the related coupled-bunch instability. Until now only novel analytical formulas were available at this frequency. Recently, laboratory measurements and numerical simulations were performed to crosscheck the analytical predictions. The experimental results based on the measurement of the variation of a probe coil inductance in the presence of i) sample graphite plates, ii) stand-alone LHC collimator jaws and iii) a full LHC collimator assembly are presented in detail. The measurement results are compared to both analytical theories and simulations. In addition, the consequences for the understanding of the LHC impedance are discussed. Salvant, B Caspers, Friedhelm Kroyer, T Métral, E Roncarolo, F 2008 2008 The low frequency longitudinal and transverse impedances of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have to be specifically minimized to prevent the onset of coherent instabilities. The LHC beam vacuum interconnects were designed as Plug In Modules (PIMs) with RF contacts to reduce their coupling impedances, but the resulting contact resistance is a concern, as this effect is difficult to estimate. High sensitivity measurements of the transverse impedance of a PIM at low frequency using a coil probe are presented. In particular, the increase of the transverse impedance of the PIM when it is elongated to its operating position is discussed in detail. Finally, the issue of non-conforming contact resistance is also addressed. Aiba, M Burkhardt, H Fartoukh, S Giovannozzi, M White, S 2008 2008 Flexibility of the LHC optics at top energy has been studied, in terms of betatron tune tunability, mainly for the high-beta optics that requires tunability of the order of half a unit. It has been shown that the tunability at top energy is good enough for the high-beta optics. The results obtained in this study could be useful for other optics and operation modes. Sammut, N J White, S M Burkhardt, H Giloux, C Venturini-Delsolaro, W 2008 2008 The superconducting orbit corrector magnets (MCBC, MCBY and MCBX) in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will be used to generate parallel separation and crossing angles at the interaction points during the different phases that will bring the LHC beams into collision. However, the field errors generated by the inherent hysteresis in the operation region of the orbit correctors may lead to unwanted orbit perturbations that could have a critical effect on luminosity. This paper presents the results obtained from dedicated cryogenic measurements on the orbit correctors and the resulting simulations performed to quantify the impact of the hysteresis on the LHC orbit. Aiba, M Calaga, R Morita, A Tomás, R Vanbavinckhove, G 2008 2008 Optics correction in the LHC is challenged by the tight aperture constrains and the demand of a highly performing BPM system. To guarantee that the LHC optics remains within a maximum allowable beta-beating of 20% several methods are being investigated through computer simulations and experiments at existing hadron machines. A software package to consolidate the implementation of the various techniques during LHC operation is underway (or nearing completion). Bruce, R Assmann, R W Bellodi, G Bracco, C Braun, H H Gilardoni, S Holzer, E B Jowett, John M Redaelli, S Weiler, T Zamantzas, C 2008 2008 The collimation efficiency for Pb ion beams in the LHC is predicted to be lower than requirements. Nuclear fragmentation and electromagnetic dissociation in the primary collimators create fragments with a wide range of Z/A ratios, which are not intercepted by the secondary collimators but lost where the dispersion has grown sufficiently large. In this article we present measurements and simulations of loss patterns generated by a prototype LHC collimator in the CERN SPS. Measurements were performed at two different energies and angles of the collimator. We also compare with proton loss maps and find a qualitative difference between Pb ions and protons, with the maximum loss rate observed at different places in the ring. This behavior was predicted by simulations and provides a valuable benchmark of our understanding of ion beam losses caused by collimation. Garoby, R 2008 2008 The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is at a very advanced stage of hardware commissioning and the first beam collisions in the experiments are expected during the year 2008. In line with the recommendations issued in 2006 by the European Strategy Group for Particle Physics, work has now started for maximizing the physics reach of the LHC and for preparing for other foreseeable needs. Beyond upgrades in the LHC itself, mainly in the optics of the insertions, the injector complex has to be renewed to deliver beam with upgraded characteristics with a high reliability. In a first phase, a new 160 MeV H-linac ("Linac4") will be built to replace the present 50 MeV proton linac (Linac2) and extensive consolidation will be made. In a second phase, the present 26 GeV PS and its set of injectors (Linac2 + PSB) are planned to be replaced with a ~50 GeV synchrotron ("PS2") using a ~4 GeV superconducting proton linac ("SPL") as injector. The SPS itself will also be the subject of major improvements, to be able to cope with a 50 GeV injection energy and with beams of much higher brightness. These proposals are described as well as their potential to evolve and fit the needs of future facilities for radioactive ions and/or neutrinos. Tranquille, G 2008 2008 The LEIR electron cooler is the first of a new generation of coolers utilising high-perveance variable-density electron beams for the cooling and accumulation of heavy ion beams. It was commissioned at the end of 2005 and has since been routinely used to provide high brightness Pb ion beams required for future LHC ion runs. High perveance, or intensity, is required to rapidly reduce the phase-space dimensions of a newly injected "hot" beam whilst the variable density helps to efficiently cool particles with large betatron oscillations and at the same time improve the lifetime of the cooled stack. In this report we present the results of recent measurements made to check and to better understand the influence of the electron beam size, intensity and density profile on the cooling performance. Tranquille, G Bal, C Carli, C Chanel, M Prieto, V Sautier, R Tan, J 2008 2008 Electron cooling is central in the preparation of dense bunches of lead beams for the LHC. Ion beam pulses from the LINAC3 are transformed into short highbrightness bunches using multi-turn injection, cooling and accumulation in the Low Energy Ion Ring, LEIR [1]. The cooling process must therefore be continuously monitored in order to guarantee that the lead ions have the required characteristics in terms of beam size and momentum spread. In LEIR a number of systems have been developed to perform these measurements. These include Schottky diagnostics, ionisation profile monitors and scrapers. Along with their associated acquisition and analysis software packages these instruments have proved to be invaluable for the optimisation of the electron cooler. Albertone, J Bartolome-Jimenez, S Boccard, C Bogey, T Borowiec, P Calvo, E Caspers, Friedhelm Gasior, M González, J L Jenninger, B Jensen, L K Jones, O R Kroyer, T Weisz, S 2008 2008 Ensuring that the two 27km beam pipes of the LHC do not contain aperture restrictions is of utmost importance. Most of the ring is composed of continuous cryostats, so any intervention to remove aperture restrictions when the machine is at its operating temperature of 1.9K will require a substantial amount of time. On warming-up the first cooled sector, several of the sliding contacts which provide electrical continuity for the beam image current between successive sections of the vacuum chamber were found to have buckled into the beam pipe. This led to a search for a technique to verify the integrity of a complete LHC arc (~3km) before any subsequent cool-down. In this paper the successful results from using a polycarbonate ball fitted with a 40MHz RF transmitter are presented. Propulsion of the ball is achieved by sucking filtered air through the entire arc, while its progress is traced every 54m via the LHC beam position measurement system which is auto-triggered by the RF transmitter on passage of the ball. Reflectometry at frequencies in the 4-8 GHz range can cover the gaps between beam position monitors and could therefore be used to localise a ball blocked by an obstacle. Lari, L Assmann, Ralph Wolfgang Bertarelli, A Bracco, C Brugger, M Cerutti, F Dallocchio, Alessandro Doyle, E Ferrari, A Keller, L Lundgren, S Markiewicz, T Mauri, M Roesler, S Sarchiapone, L Smith, J Vlachoudis, V 2008 2008 The LHC collimation system is installed and commissioned in different phases, following the natural evolution of the LHC performance. To improve cleaning efficiency towards the end of the low beta squeeze at 7TeV, and in stable physics conditions, it is foreseen to complement the 30 highly robust Phase I secondary collimators with low impedance Phase II collimators. At this stage, their design is not yet finalized. Possible options include metallic collimators, graphite jaws with a movable metallic foil, or collimators with metallic rotating jaws. As part of the evaluation of the different designs, the FLUKA Monte Carlo code is extensively used for calculating energy deposition and studying material damage and activation. This report outlines the simulation approach and defines the critical quantities involved. Lari, L Assmann, Ralph Wolfgang Bracco, C Brugger, M Cerutti, F Doyle, E Ferrari, A Keller, L Lundgren, S Keller, L Mauri, M Redaelli, S Sarchiapone, L Smith, J Vlachoudis, V Weiler, T 2008 2008 The LHC beams are designed to have high stability and to be stored for many hours. The nominal beam intensity lifetime is expected to be of the order of 20h. The Phase II collimation system has to be able to handle particle losses in stable physics conditions at 7 TeV in order to avoid beam aborts and to allow correction of parameters and restoration to nominal conditions. Monte Carlo simulations are needed in order to evaluate the behavior of metallic high-Z collimators during operation scenarios using a realistic distribution of losses, which is a mix of the three limiting halo cases. Moreover, the consequences in the IR7 insertion of the worst (case) abnormal beam loss are evaluated. The case refers to a spontaneous trigger of the horizontal extraction kicker at top energy, when Phase II collimators are used. These studies are an important input for engineering design of the collimation Phase II system and for the evaluation of their effect on adjacent components. The goal is to build collimators that can survive the expected conditions during LHC stable physics runs, in order to avoid quenches of the SC magnets and to protect other LHC equipments. Kotzian, G Barnes, M Ducimetière, L Goddard, B Höfle, Wolfgang 2008 2008 Fast pulsed kicker magnets are used to extract beams from the SPS and inject them into the LHC. The kickers exhibit time-varying structure in the pulse shape which translates into small offsets with respect to the closed orbit at LHC injection. The LHC damper systems will be used to damp out the resulting betatron oscillations, to keep the growth in the transverse emittance within specification. This paper describes the results of the measurements of the kicker ripple for the two systems, both in the laboratory and with beam, and presents the simulated performance of the transverse damper in terms of beam emittance growth. The implications for LHC operation are discussed. Papotti, G Bohl, T Linnecar, T Shaposhnikova, E Tückmantel, Joachim 2008 2008 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. Gallet, E Axensalva, J Baggiolini, V Carlier, E Goddard, B Kain, V Lamont, M Magnin, N Verhagen, H Uythoven, J 2008 2008 In order to ensure the required level of reliability of the LHC beam dump system a series of post-operational checks must be performed after each dump action. This paper describes the various data handling and data analysis systems which are required internally and at different levels of the LHC control system, for postoperational checks, and the experience from the commissioning of the equipment where these systems were used to analyse the dump kicker performance. Uythoven, J Arduini, Gianluigi Assmann, Ralph Wolfgang Gilbert, N Goddard, B Kain, V Koschik, A Kramer, T Lamont, M Mertens, V Redaelli, R Wenninger, J 2008 2008 The transfer line for the LHC Ring 1 was successfully commissioned with beam in the autumn of 2007. After extraction from the SPS accelerator and about 2.7 km of new transfer line, the beam arrived at the temporarily installed beam dump, about 50 m before the start of the LHC tunnel, without the need of any beam threading. This paper gives an overview of the hardware commissioning period and the actual beam tests carried out. It summarises the results of the beam test optics measurements and the performance of the installed hardware. Uythoven, J Antoine, A Carlier, E Castronuovo, F Ducimetière, L Gallet, E Goddard, B Magnin, N Verhagen, H 2008 2008 The LHC Beam Dumping System is one of the vital elements of the LHC Machine Protection System and has to operate reliably every time a beam dump request is made. Detailed dependability calculations have been made, resulting in expected rates for the different system failure modes. A 'reliability run' of the whole system, installed in its final configuration in the LHC, has been made to discover infant mortality problems and to compare the occurrence of the measured failure modes with their calculations. Gomez Alonso, A 2008 2008 At LHC, beam losses, with about 360 MJ of stored energy per beam at nominal collision operation, are potentially dangerous for the accelerator equipment and can also affect the operational efficiency by inducing quenches in superconducting magnets. Magnet failures may affect the beam leading to proton losses primarily in collimators and secondarily in superconducting magnets due to scattering of protons from collimator jaws. The evolution of the beam during magnet failures has been simulated using MAD-X with a variable magnetic field. The impacts of particles in the collimators have been recorded as a function of time. A second program, CollTrack, has been used to determine the loss patterns of scattered particles from each collimator as a function of the initial impact parameter. The magnets that are likely to quench are identified and an estimation of the time between the beginning of a failure and a quench is obtained by combining the results from the simulations. The time to a start of a quench is a relevant parameter to determine the dump threshold of beam loss monitors in order to optimize protection redundancy and operation smoothness for LHC. Sammut, N J Bottura, L Deferne, G Venturini-Delsolaro, W Wolf, R 2008 2008 The allowed multipoles in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) superconducting dipole magnets decay whilst on a constant current plateau. It is known that the decay amplitude is largely affected by the powering history of the magnet, and particularly by the pre-cycle flat top current and duration and the pre-injection preparation duration. Recently, it was observed that the decay amplitude is also highly dependent on the pre-cycle ramp rate, which has an indirect effect also on the sample of data taken at constant field along the magnet loadlines. This is an important consideration to be included in the Field Description for the LHC (FiDeL), to cope with the difference between the test procedure followed for series tests and the expected cycles during the machine operation. This paper presents the results of the measurements performed to investigate this phenomenon and describes the method included in FiDeL to represent this dependence. Sammut, N J Alemany-Fernandez, R Bottura, L Deferne, G Lamont, M Miles, J Sanfilippo, S Strzelczyk, M Venturini-Delsolaro, W Xydi, P 2008 2008 In order to reduce the burden on the beam-based feedback, the Large Hadron Collider control system is equipped with the Field Description for the LHC (FiDeL) which provides a forecast of the magnetic field and the multipole field errors. FiDeL has recently been extensively tested at CERN to determine main field tracking, multipole forecasting and compensation accuracy. This paper describes the rationale behind the tests, the procedures employed to power the main magnets and their correctors, and finally, we present the results obtained. We also give an indication of the prediction accuracy that the system can deliver during the operation of the LHC and we discuss the implications that these will have on the machine performance. Bordry, Frederick 2008 2008 The installation of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN is now completed. All magnets are interconnected. Five of the eight machine sectors are cold and filled with liquid helium. The remaining three sectors are in the cooldown phase. All the sectors will be at 1.9 K by mid of July 2008. The hardware commissioning has started in 2006 and three sectors are commissioned up to 5.5 TeV. The start of the beam commissioning is planned for this summer 2008. The paper presents the main milestones towards the beam operation and summarizes the major technical difficulties which were discovered and recovered during the past two years. Montabonnet, V Ceccone, L 2008 2008 The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) particle accelerator requires many true bipolar power converters (752), located under the accelerator dipole magnets in a radioactive environment. A special design and topology are required to obtain the necessary performance while meeting the criteria of radiation tolerance and compact size. This paper describes the ±60A ±8V power converter, designed by CERN to meet these requirements. Design aspects, performances and test results of this converter are presented. Nisbet, D Thiesen, H 2008 2008 The LHC requires more than 1700 power converter systems that supply between 60A and 13kA of precisely regulated current to the superconducting magnets. For the first time at CERN these converters have been installed underground in close proximity to many other accelerator systems. In addition to the power converters themselves, many utilities such as air and water cooling, electrical power, communication networks and magnet safety systems needed to be installed and commissioned as a single system. Due to the complexity of installing and commissioning such a large infrastructure, with inevitable interaction between the different systems, a three phase test strategy was developed. The first phase comprised the manufacture, integration and reception tests of all converter sub-systems necessary for powering. The second phase covered the commissioning of all the power converters installed in their final environment with the utilities. The third phase will add the superconducting magnets and will not be covered by this paper. The planning and execution that have led to the successful completion of these initial phases are described. Results and conclusions of the testing are presented. White, S Burkhardt, W Cavalier, S Heller, M Puzo, P 2008 2008 An insertion optics with a $\beta$* of at least 2600m has been requested by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. This is very far from the standard LHC physics optics and implies a significant reduction in the phase advance from this insertion corresponding to about half a unit in tune. We describe several alternatives how this could be integrated in overall LHC optics solutions with the possibility to inject, ramp and un-squeeze to the required very high-$\beta$*. Calaga, R Sun, Y Tomás, R Zimmermann, F 2008 2008 An R&D program to establish a road map for the installation of crab cavities in the LHC is rapidly advancing. Both local and global crab schemes are under investigation to develop cavities that will be compatible with the LHC optics and meet the aperture requirements. Space and aperture constraints to accommodate a prototype crab cavity in the LHC along with related optics issues are presented. The design of a prototype $TM_{110}$ cavity and pertinent RF requirements including impedance estimates and damping are discussed. Aksahal, H Bordry, Frederick Braun, H H Brüning, Oliver Sim Çiftçi, A K Chattopadhyay, S Dainton, J B de Roeck, A Eide, A Garoby, R Holzer, B J Klein, M Linnecar, T Mess, K H Osborne, J Rinolfi, L Schulte, D Sultansoy, S Tomás, R Tückmantel, Joachim Vivoli, A Willeke, F J Zimmermann, F linac-ring collider luminosity electron source positron source beam-beam effects disruption electrical power interaction region cryo power 2008 2008 We describe various parameter scenarios for a ring-linac ep collider based on LHC and an independent electron linac. Luminosities between $10^{31}$ and $10^{33} cm^{-2}s^{-1}$ can be achieved with a s.c. linac, operated either in pulsed or in cw mode, with optional recirculation, at a total electric wallplug power of order 20 MW. Higher luminosities, of several $10^{33} cm^{-2}s^{-1}$ can be reached by investing more electric power or by energy recovery. Finally, merits of a linac-ring ep collider are discussed. Ciapala, Edmond Arnaudon, L Baudrenghien, P Brunner, O Butterworth, A Linnecar, T Maesen, P Molendijk, J Montesinos, E Valuch, D Weierud, F 2008 2008 The installation of the 400 MHz superconducting RF system in LHC is finished and commissioning is under way. The final RF system comprises four cryo-modules each with four cavities in the LHC tunnel straight section round IP4. Also underground in an adjacent cavern shielded from the main tunnel are the sixteen 300 kW klystron RF power sources with their high voltage bunkers, two Faraday cages containing RF feedback and beam control electronics, and racks containing all the slow controls. The system and the experience gained during commissioning will be described. In particular, results from conditioning the cavities and their movable main power couplers and the setting up of the low level RF feedbacks will be presented. Baudrenghien, P Gorbachev, E V Höfle, Wolfgang Killing, F Kojevnikov, I Kotzian, G Lebedev, N I Louwerse, R Makarov, A A Montesinos, E Rabtsun, S V Rossi, V Schokker, M Thepenier, E Valuch, D Zhabitsky, V 2008 2008 A powerful transverse feedback system ("Damper") has been installed in LHC. It will stabilise coupled bunch instabilities in a frequency range from 3 kHz to 20 MHz and at the same time damp injection oscillations originating from steering errors and injection kicker ripple. The transverse damper can also be used as an exciter for purposes of abort gap cleaning or tune measurement. The power and lowlevel systems layouts are described along with results from the hardware commissioning. The achieved performance is compared with earlier predictions and requirements for injection damping and instability control. Baudrenghien, P Höfle, Wolfgang Kotzian, G Rossi, V 2008 2008 For the LHC a VME card has been developed that contains all functionalities for transverse damping, diagnostics and controlled bunch by bunch excitation. It receives the normalized bunch by bunch position from two pick-ups via Gigabit Serial Links (SERDES). A Stratix II FPGA is responsible for resynchronising the two data streams to the bunch-synchronous clock domain (40.08 MHz) and then applying all the digital signal processing: In addition to the classic functionalities (gain balance, rejection of closed orbit, pick-up combinations, one-turn delay) it contains 3- turn Hilbert filters for phase adjustment with a single pickup scheme, a phase equalizer to correct for the non-linear phase response of the power amplifier and an interpolator to double the processing frequency followed by a low-pass filter to precisely control the bandwidth. Using two clock domains in the FPGA the phase of the feedback loop can be adjusted with a resolution of 10 ps. Built-in diagnostic memory (observation and post-mortem) and excitation memory for setting-up are also included. The card receives functions to continuously adjust its parameters as required during injection, ramping and physics. Papotti, G 2008 2008 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. Kotzian, G Höfle, Wolfgang Vogel, E 2008 2008 A simulation model has been developed to predict the damping efficiency of the LHC transverse feedback system in the presence of coupled bunch instabilities and under realistic assumptions for the injection error. The model tracks both the centre of gravity of a bunch and the r.m.s beam size during and after injection. It includes the frequency characteristic of the transverse feedback system. Nonlinearities in the beam optics will cause the bunches to filament and lead to an increase of the transverse emittance after injection. The resistive wall instability reduces the effectiveness of the transverse feedback by slowing down the damping process. Possibilities for enhancing the performance of the feedback system by signal processing schemes are outlined. Holzer, E B Bocian, D Böhlen, T T Dehning, B Kramer, Daniel Ponce, L Priebe, A Sapinski, M Stockner, M 2008 2008 CERN's Large Hadron Collider will store an unprecedented amount of energy in its circulating beams. Beamloss monitoring (BLM) is, therefore, critical for machine protection. It must protect against the consequences (equipment damage, quenches of superconducting magnets) of excessive beam loss. About 4000 monitors will be installed at critical loss locations. Each monitor has 384 beam abort thresholds associated; for 12 integrated loss durations ($40\mu$s to 83 s) and 32 energies (450GeV to 7 TeV). Depending on monitor location, the thresholds vary by orders of magnitude. For simplification, the monitors are grouped in 'families'. Monitors of one family protect similar magnets against equivalent loss scenarios. Therefore, they are given the same thresholds. The start-up calibration of the BLM system is required to be within a factor of five in accuracy; and the final accuracy should be a factor of two. Simulations (backed-up by control measurements) determine the relation between the BLM signal, the deposited energy and the critical energy deposition for damage or quench (temperature of the coil). The paper presents the strategy of determining 1.5 million threshold values. Steinhagen, R Boccardi, A Bohl, T Gasior, M Jones, O R Kasinski, K K Wenninger, J 2008 2008 Tune and chromaticity control is an integral part of safe and reliable LHC operation. Tight tolerances on the maximum beam excursions allow excitation amplitudes of less than 30 $\mu$m. This leaves only a small margin for transverse beam and momentum excitations, required for measuring tune and chromaticity. This contribution discusses the baseline LHC continuous chromaticity measurement with results from tests at the CERN-SPS. The system is based on continuous tracking of the tune using a Phase- Locked-Loop (PLL) while modulating the beam momentum. The high PLL tune resolution achieved, made it possible to detect chromaticity changes well below the nominally required 1 unit for relative momentum modulations of only $2·10^{-5}$. The sensitive tune measurement frontend employed allowed the PLL excitation and radial amplitudes to be kept below a few micrometers. These results show that this type of measurement can be considered as practically non-perturbative permitting its use even during nominal LHC operation. Koschik, A Goddard, B Höfle, Wolfgang Kotzian, G Kramer, Daniel Kramer, T 2008 2008 The critical and delicate process of dumping the beams of the LHC requires very low particle densities within the $3 \mu$s of the dump kicker rising edge. High beam population in this so-called 'abort gap' might cause magnet quenches or even damage. Constant refilling due to diffusion processes is expected which will be counter-acted by an active abort gap cleaning system employing the transverse feedback kickers. In order to assess the feasibility and performance of such an abort gap cleaning system, simulations and measurements with beam in the SPS have been performed. Here we report on the results of these studies. Kramer, T Goddard, B Gyr, M Koschik, A Uythoven, J Weiler, T 2008 2008 The LHC beam dumping system (LBDS) is used to dispose accelerated protons and ions in a wide energy range from 450 GeV up to 7 TeV. An abort gap of $3 \mu$s is foreseen to avoid sweeping particles through the LHC ring aperture. This paper gives a brief overview of the critical apertures in the extraction region and the two beam dump lines. MAD-X tracking studies have been made to investigate the impact of particles swept through the aperture due to extraction kicker failures or the presence of particles within the abort gap. The issue of failures during beam abort is a major concern for machine protection as well as a critical factor for safe operation of the experiments and their detectors. Gómez Alonso, A 2008 2008 During LHC operation, magnet failures may affect the beam optics leading to proton losses in the collimators. These losses, with about 360MJ of stored energy per beam at nominal collision operation, are potentially dangerous for the accelerator equipment. The LHC Machine Protection Systems ensure that the beam is extracted safely before these losses can produce any damage. As a magnet failure develops, so does the distribution of the lost particles, longitudinally along the ring as well as transversally at each collimator. The transversal impact distributions of lost particles at the most affected collimators and their evolution with time have been studied for representative magnet failures in the LHC. It has been found that the impact distribution at a given collimator can be approximated by an exponential function with time-dependent parameters. The average impact parameter ranges from about 7 to $620 \mu$m for the cases studied.