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The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL--LHC) will require unprecedented orbit stability at the low-beta experiments, ATLAS and CMS. Because the effect of seismic noise might become a relevant source of luminosity loss, several studies have been conducted to characterize the actual ground motion in the LHC tunnel. In preparation for the official groundbreaking of the civil engineering work for the high luminosity upgrade, which started on 15 June 2018 in parallel to LHC beam operation, seismic sensors were installed to permanently monitor the ground stability close to these experiments. Compactor work and shaft excavation were expected to induce vibrations in the accelerator magnets that would cause orbit disturbance, beam loss, and potentially premature beam dumps. This paper summarises the observations made on the LHC beams and uses this data to benchmark estimates of the impact of low-frequency vibrations on the closed orbit at the main interaction points and collimators. The impact of ground motion on HL--LHC operation is then estimated using the expected operational scenario and the estimated mechanical stability of the new HL--LHC triplet magnets that is based on recent measurements of mechanical magnet transfer functions.

A high-pulse-current injector followed by a short high-gradient X-band linac is considered as a driver for a compact Inverse Compton Scattering source. We show that using a high-power ultrashort pulse laser operating in burst mode and a Fabry-Pérot enhancement cavity, X-rays with flux values over 10¹³ ph/s and photon energies up to MeV are achievable. The resulting high-intensity and high-energy X-rays allow for various applications, including cancer therapy, tomography, and nuclear waste management. A preliminary conceptual design of such a compact ICS source is presented, together with simulations of the expected performance., Proceedings of the 31st International Linear Accelerator Conference, LINAC2022, Liverpool, UK

The Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Experiment (AWAKE) at CERN uses 6 cm long proton bunches extracted from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at 400 GeV beam energy to drive high gradient plasma wakefields for the acceleration of electron bunches to 2 GeV within a 10 m length. Knowledge and control of the position of both copropagating beams is crucial for the operation of the experiment. Whilst the current electron beam position monitoring system at AWAKE can be used in the absence of the proton beam, the proton bunch signal dominates when both particle bunches are present simultaneously. A new technique based on the generation of Cherenkov diffraction radiation (ChDR) in a dielectric material placed in close proximity to the particle beam has been designed to exploit the large bunch length difference of the particle beams at AWAKE, 200 ps for protons versus a few ps for electrons, such that the electron signal dominates. Hence, this technique would allow for the position measurement of a short electron bunch in the presence of a more intense but longer proton bunch. The design considerations, numerical analysis and plans for tests at the CERN Linear Electron Accelerator for Research (CLEAR) facility are presented., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

The CERN Linear Electron Accelerator for Research (CLEAR) has been operating as a general user facility since 2017 providing beams for a wide range of user experiments. However, with its current optical layout, the beams available to users are not able to cover every request. To overcome this, a second experimental beamline has been proposed. In this paper we discuss the potential optics of the new line as well as detailing the hardware required for its construction. Branching from the current beamline, via a dogleg chicane that could be used for bunch compression, the new beamline would provide an additional in-air test stand to be available to users. The beamline before the test stand would utilise large aperture quadrupoles to allow the irradiation of large target areas or strong focussing of beams onto a target. In addition to this there would also be further in-vacuum space to install experiments., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

Very High Energy Electrons (VHEE) of 50 - 250 MeV are an attractive choice for FLASH radiation therapy (RT). Before VHEE-FLASH RT can be considered for clinical use, a reliable dosimetric and beam monitoring system needs to be developed, able to measure the dose delivered to the patient in real-time and cut off the beam in the event of a machine fault to prevent overdosing the patient. Ionisation chambers are the standard monitors in conventional RT; however, their response saturates at the high dose rates required for FLASH. Therefore, a new dosimetry method is needed that can provide reliable measurements of the delivered dose in these conditions. Experiments using 200 MeV electrons were done at the CLEAR facility at CERN to investigate the properties of detectors such as diamond beam loss detectors, GEM foil detectors, and Timepix3 ASIC chips. From the tests, the GEM foil proved to be the most promising., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

The CERN Linear Accelerator for Research (CLEAR) at CERN is a test facility using a 200 MeV electron beam. In 2020 and 2021, a few hardware upgrades were done: comparators for position measurements were added on components, the in-air experimental area was re-arranged in order to provide more space, a robotic system was built to enable remote samples manipulations for irradiation studies, the BPM reading system was optimized and the laser double-bunch system implemented to allow for a doubling of the electron bunch frequency from 1.5 GHz to 3 GHz. In the paper, we describe such improvements, we outline the experimental activities during 2021 and illustrate the diverse program for the next 4 years, including high doses’ irradiation studies for medical applications., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

The interest for Very High Energy Electron (VHEE) radiotherapy (RT) for cancer treatment recently bloomed, given the present availability of high-gradient accelerator technology for compact, cost effective electron linacs in the 100-200 MeV energy range. Particularly promising is the so called FLASH high dose rate regime, in which cancer cells are damaged while healthy tissue is largely spared. VHEE beams are especially adapted for FLASH RT, given their penetration depth and the high beam current, needed to treat large deep seated tumors. In the CERN Linear Accelerator for Research (CLEAR) facility, a series of unique studies have been initiated on VHEE and FLASH RT issues, in collaboration with several multidisciplinary user groups. In this paper we briefly outline the activities and its main recent results, e.g. on localized dose deposition by beam focusing, and on chemical and biological test to clarify damage mechanisms. We then describe in details the dedicated systems and the techniques adopted - and in large part locally developed by the CLEAR team - in order to satisfy the user requirements, with particular attention to the crucial aspect of high dose rate dosimetry., Proceedings of the 31st International Linear Accelerator Conference, LINAC2022, Liverpool, UK

The 200 MeV electron beam of the CERN Linear Accelerator for Research (CLEAR) user facility at CERN has been intensively used to study the potential use of Very High Energy Electrons (VHEE) in cancer radiotherapy. In particular, irradiation tests have been performed in the high dose rate regime, which has gained a lot of interest for the so called FLASH biological effect, in which cancer cells are damaged while healthy tissue is largely spared. High dose rate dosimetry, though, poses a number of challenges: to validate standard or new methods of passive dosimetry, like radiochromic films and alanine pellets, and especially to develop new methods for real-time dosimetry since the normally used ionization chambers suffer from non-linear effects at high dose rates. In this paper we describe the results of experimental activities at CLEAR aimed at developing solid, high-dose rate dosimetry standards adapted to VHEE beams., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand

Beams of uniform transverse beam profile are desirable for a variety of applications such as irradiation experiments. The generation of beams with such profiles has previously been investigated as a method of reducing emittance growth. These methods, however, often use complicated optics setups or short, femtosecond laser pulse lengths. In this paper, we demonstrate that if ultra low emittance is not the target of the photoinjector, it is possible to produce transversely uniform beam profiles using a simple Gaussian laser, with a bunch length of a few picoseconds, utilising space-charge effects only., Proceedings of the 13th International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2022, Bangkok, Thailand