Search

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider cryomagnets embed a 1.9 K UHV chamber lined with a 5–20 K beam-screen (BS) that intercepts the synchrotron radiation and electron cloud (EC). The low–energy EC irradiates the BS and desorbs gas, creating a dynamic vacuum effect. A novel setup controllably reproduces this by irradiating an unbaked as-received BS copper sample at 15 K with 0–1.4 keV electrons, representing a slice of the EC spectrum. This collector-based setup is qualified using a HOPG reference for secondary electron yield (SEY) and $^{15}$N$_2$ as a tracer in low-energy electron stimulated desorption (ESD) measurements. Measurement at 15 K revealed sub-10 eV ESD thresholds and a maximum around 300 eV of 0.18 H2/e$^-$ and 0.13 CO/e$^-$. Irradiation with 300 eV and 1 keV electrons at ∼ 8.10$^{-4}$ C.mm$^{-2}$ conditioned ESD and SEY alike. Similar dose at 17 eV only caused minor SEY reduction and no ESD decline. The as-received H2 and CO2 yields at 300 eV decreased 5-150x between 15 and 265 K, respectively.

In the superconducting magnets of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, most of the beam-induced heat load is intercepted by a beam-screen (BS) cryogenically cooled to 5–20 K. When circulating the bunched proton beam, an electron cloud (EC) can form and bombard the BS copper surface with high doses of predominantly low-energy electrons, which desorb gas and consequently increase the pressure. The beam-induced pressure rise decreases during operation as the electron irradiation diminishes the secondary electron yield (SEY) and the electron-stimulated desorption (ESD) yield, a phenomenon referred to as ‘beam conditioning’. Low ESD and SEY values achieved rapidly are requisite to mitigate EC and maintain UHV in storage rings. We report data on ESD and SEY electron conditioning completed at cryogenic temperature with 0–1 keV electrons up to an electron dose of 5.10−3 C mm−2. Our results show that SEY conditioning depends on the primary electron energy and also that ESD yield significantly decreases with temperature. At 15 K, the amorphous-carbon coating and laser-treated copper present SEY below 1.1 and have initial ESD yields 3–6 times lower than OFE copper. Our results conform to the SEY and ESD's general understanding and extend it towards cryogenic temperatures. •Technical copper has 4–80x lower electrodesorption yields at 15 K than at 260 K.•Electrodesorption energy threshold and conditioning rate remain unchanged at 15 K.•Low-energy e− have a limited conditioning effect on the secondary electron yield.•Carbon-coated and laser-treated copper retain low SEY and ESD at 15 K.

We report an investigation of X-ray induced desorption of neutrals, cations and anions from CO ice. The desorption of neutral CO, by far the most abundant, is quantified and discussed within the context of its application to astrochemistry. The desorption of many different cations, including large cations up to the mass limit of the spectrometer, are observed. In contrast, the only desorbing anions detected are O$^-$ and C$^-$. The desorption mechanisms of all these species are discussed with the aid of their photodesorption spectrum. The evolution of the X-ray absorption spectrum shows significant chemical modifications of the ice upon irradiation, which along with the desorption of large cations gives a new insight into X-ray induced photochemistry in CO ice., Comment: Accepted in PCCP

Vacuum-UV (VUV) photodesorption from water-rich ice mantles coating interstellar grains is known to play an important role in the gas-to-ice ratio in star- and planet-forming regions. Quantitative photodesorption yields from water ice are crucial for astrochemical models. We aim to provide the first quantitative photon-energy dependent photodesorption yields from water ice in the VUV. This information is important to understand the photodesorption mechanisms and to account for the variation of the yields under interstellar irradiation conditions. Experiments have been performed on the DESIRS beamline at the SOLEIL synchrotron, delivering tunable VUV light, using the SPICES (Surface Processes and ICES) set-up. Compact amorphous solid water ice (H$_2$O and D$_2$O) has been irradiated from 7 to 13.5 eV. Quantitative yields have been obtained by detection in the gas phase with mass-spectrometry for sample temperatures ranging from 15 K to 100 K. Photodesorption spectra of H$_2$O (D$_2$O), OH (OD), H$_2$ (D$_2$) and O$_2$ peak around 9-10 eV and decrease at higher energies. Average photodesorption yields of intact water at 15 K are 5 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$ molecule/photon for H$_2$O and 5 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$ molecule/photon for D$_2$O over the 7-13.5 eV range. The strong isotopic effect can be explained by a differential chemical recombination between OH (OD) and H (D) photofragments originating from lower kinetic energy available for the OH photofragments upon direct water photodissociation and/or possibly by an electronic relaxation process. It is expected to contribute to water fractionation during the building-up of the ice grain mantles in molecular clouds and to favor OH-poor chemical environment in comet-formation regions of protoplanetary disks. The yields of all the detected species except OH (OD) are enhanced above (70 $\pm$10) K, suggesting an ice restructuration at this temperature., Comment: Submitted to A&A. In revision

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is affected by the electron cloud (EC) phenomenon that can provoke beam instabilities, detrimental heat loads and pressure increases in the vacuum system. An innovative dedicated system called vacuum pilot sector (VPS) provides a continuous monitoring of the electron flux and of the pressure signals thanks to electron pickup and vacuum gauges. The VPS system is installed in a room temperature, field-free part of the LHC storage ring. Several technical surfaces, such as ex situ nonevaporable getter (NEG), amorphous carbon coating and copper, are simultaneously tested. The main outcomes of this study show that the EC signals have: (1) a linear dependence upon the number of bunches and upon the bunch population in the multipacting regime, (2) a multipacting threshold at a given bunch population, (3) a reduction under beam conditioning, (4) a strong dependence on the filling pattern and beam energy. The comparison between different surfaces shows that amorphous carbon coating reduces drastically the EC buildup, thanks to its low secondary electron yield (SEY) and photoelectron yield (PY), while copper and ex situ NEG coated surfaces suffer of EC multipacting, even after several months of operation. The multipacting rate coefficients are higher for copper than for ex situ NEG, as predicted from the SEY estimation. Other detailed experimental observations are discussed in this paper.

Core-excitation of water ice releases many different molecules and ions in the gas phase. Studying these desorbed species and the underlying mechanisms can provide useful information on the effects of X-ray irradiation in ice. We report a detailed study of the X-ray induced desorption of a number of neutral, cationic and anionic species from amorphous solid water. We discuss the desorption mechanisms, and the relative contributions of Auger and secondary electrons (X-ray induced Electron Stimulated Desorption) and initial excitation (\rev{direct desorption}) as well as the role of photochemistry. Anions are shown to desorb not just through processes linked with secondary electrons but also through direct dissociation of the core-excited molecule. The desorption spectra of oxygen ions (O$^+$, OH$^+$, H$_2$O$^+$, O$^-$, OH$^-$) give a new perspective on their previously reported very low desorption yields for most types of irradiation of water, showing that they mostly originate from the dissociation of photoproducts such as H$_2$O$_2$., Comment: Accepted in Journal of Chemical Physics

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), currently under operation at CERN, is colliding intense proton beams at the highest energy frontier up to ∼14 TeV in the centre of mass. This superconducting storage ring is at the origin of the discovery in 2012 of the so-called ‘Higgs’ Boson explaining the origin of the mass of weak bosons W + ,W − and Z also discovered at CERN in 1983. The arc vacuum system, which operates at cryogenic temperatures, consists of a 1.9 K cold bore which houses a 5–20 K beam screen. Beam collisions are performed inside a Non-Evaporable-Getter coated vacuum system located in long straight sections held at room temperature. These vacuum systems were designed to be stable under ion bombardment, to cope with intense VUV synchrotron radiation flux and to mitigate beam induced multipacting effects. In this paper, the LHC beam vacuum system design is recalled. Its operation, challenges and achieved performances during the commissioning phase will be discussed in detail.

Water is the main constituent of interstellar ices, and it plays a key role in the evolution of many regions of the interstellar medium, from molecular clouds to planet-forming disks1. In cold regions of the interstellar medium, water is expected to be completely frozen out onto the dust grains. Nonetheless, observations indicate the presence of cold water vapour, implying that non-thermal desorption mechanisms are at play. Photodesorption by ultraviolet photons has been proposed to explain these observations2,3, with the support of extensive experimental and theoretical work on ice analogues4–6. In contrast, photodesorption by X-rays, another viable mechanism, has been little studied. The potential of this process to desorb key molecules such as water, intact rather than fragmented or ionized, remains unexplored. We experimentally investigated X-ray photodesorption from water ice, monitoring all desorbing species. We found that desorption of neutral water is efficient, while ion desorption is minor. We derived yields that can be implemented in astrochemical models. These results open up the possibility of taking into account the X-ray photodesorption process in the modelling of protoplanetary disks or X-ray-dominated regions. The X-ray-induced photodesorption of water from astrophysical ices, intact, has been little studied. However, it could be a key process in producing the cold water vapour that is seen in these regions. Here, the yield of such a mechanism is experimentally quantified.

The study and quantification of UV photon-induced desorption of frozen molecules furthers our understanding of the chemical evolution of cold interstellar regions. Nitric oxide (NO) is an important intermediate species in both gas-phase and solid-phase chemical networks. In this work, we present quantitative measurements of the photodesorption of a pure NO ice.We used the tunable monochromatic synchrotron light of the DESIRS beamline of the SOLEIL facility near Paris to irradiate NO ices in the 6 - 13.6 eV range and measured desorption by quadrupole mass spectrometry.We find that NO photodesorption is very efficient, its yield being around 1e-2 molecule per incident photon for UV fields relevant to the diffuse and dense interstellar medium. We discuss the extrapolation of our results to an astrophysical context and we compare photodesorption of NO to previously studied molecules., Comment: A&A, Accepted

The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has 54 km of ultra-high vacuum (UHV) beam chambers out of which about 90% are at cryogenic temperature (1.9 K) and the rest at room temperature. During operation, the residual gas density in the beam pipes is dominated by beam induced effect such ion, electron and photon-stimulated gas desorption. Therefore, the computation of gas density profile is of great importance to confirm the vacuum stability, and to estimate the beam lifetime. Moreover, the gas density profiles are essential to determine the machine induced background in the experimental areas, and to define the pressure profile in the cryogenic sectors where there is no vacuum instrumentation available. In this paper, the vacuum stability is studied for a newly proposed upgrade of the vacuum chamber at the ATLAS interaction point, using the vacuum stability code called VASCO. The residual gas density profile along the ATLAS vacuum chambers and the effects of photon and electron flux hitting the vacuum chamber walls are presented and analysed.

The outgassing rate of the collimators in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has an important role for the life-time of the Non-Evaporable Getter (NEG), and an accurate analysis allows the definition of future activities, like NEG vacuum activation. For these reasons, both, total outgassing rate and gas composition of a secondary collimator have been measured in the laboratory. The outgassing rate decreases by about two orders of magnitude by after bake-out and moreover, repeated bake-out further reduced the outgassing rate. The gas transmission through the NEG coated beam pipes and the resulting pressure distributions near the collimator were also measured in a dedicated setup. It is found that the main gas component after just 2 m of NEG coated beam pipe is CH 4 due to the extreme pumping speed of NEG for the other gases. Large amount of outgassing for H 2 and carbon related molecules are released when moving the collimator jaws. It is found that the NEG is very effective even in such case with large gas load.

The 27 km long large hadron collider (LHC), currently under construction at CERN, will collide protons beam at 14 TeV in the centre of mass. In the 8 arcs, the superconducting dipoles and quadrupoles of the FODO cells operate with superfluid He at 1.9 K. In the 8 long straight sections, the cold bores of the superconducting magnets are held at 1.9 or 4.5 K. Thus, in the LHC, ∼75% of the beam tube vacuum chamber is cooled with He. In many areas of the machine, He leaks could appear in the beam tube. At cryogenic temperature, the gas condenses onto the cold bores or beam screens, and interacts with the circulating beam. He leaks creates a He front propagating along the vacuum chambers, which might cause magnet quench. We discuss the consequences of He leaks, the possible means of detections, the strategies to localise them and the methods to measure their size.

This paper focuses on the impedances evaluation of the cold bore experiment called COLDEX, and installed in the SPS machine. A comparison between analytical model and numerical results is presented. Tests on power losses are also shown.

The cold bore experiment installed in the super proton synchrotron has been used to study the performance of a vacuum system operating at cryogenic temperatures in the presence of a large hadron collider (LHC) type proton beam. The ∼2 m long cryostat, which can be cooled below 3 K, is fitted with an actively cooled beam screen which can be temperature controlled between 5 and 100 K. Molecular desorption and deposited heat load measurements, with or without gas pre-condensation, have been performed. Implications to the LHC design and operation will be discussed.

A cryogenic vacuum system has been used to study both the surface pumping of gases and the molecular photodesorption yield from OFE copper in the temperature range from 5 to 300 K. The sticking coefficient on a ‘bare surface’ was found to increase with decreasing temperature of the substrate and below 20 K, to be in the range of a few per cent for all gas species studied. The molecular photodesorption yield for the ‘bare surface’ was found to decrease with decreasing temperature and below 20 K, after an accumulated photon dose of 3.1×10 22 photons m −1 , to be in the range of 10 −4 molecules photon −1 for H 2 and 10 −5 molecules photon −1 for the other gas species. These measured values are used to predict the evolution of the gas densities in the large hadron collider (LHC). Implications to the LHC are discussed.

The LHC collimation system has undergone an important upgrade during LS1. A total of 32 collimator installations are taking place to consolidate and improve the Run 1 system. This includes 18 new collimators with embedded beam positions monitors (BPMs), additional physics debris collimators, additional passive absorbers and re-installation or displacement of existing collimators. This paper summarizes the post-LS1 collimation layout, highlighting the expected gains from each modification, and the readiness of the new collimation hardware for commissioning without and with beam. Special emphasis is devoted to the new software for the control and configuration of the BPM colli-mators. A proposal for the necessary beam conditions during collimation alignment and validation with loss maps at 6.5 TeV is also discussed, including a strategy for the machine protection aspects. A list of early machine development studies is proposed.

At the beginning of 2013 the LHC accelerator stopped for the Long Shutdown (LS1) by the need to consolidate the magnets interconnects. During this period of time, despite the very good performances of the beam vacuum system during the 2010-2012 physic run, different activities were held in parallel by the VSC group so as to consolidate, improve and upgrades some dedicated area of the LHC accelerator. As example a campaign aiming the consolidation of some RF bridges was conducted, NEG coated inserts were installed as a permanent electron cloud multipacting suppressor in critical locations and boosting of pumping speed by the introduction of compact NEG cartridges were performed in special devices. In addition consolidation of different beam equipment such as collimators, BGI, BSRT, BQS, installation of news TCDQ and MKB to name some, were carried out. In this paper a review of the main consolidations carried out during the LS1 in the beam vacuum system of the LHC are presented and discussed. Their impacts for the future operation are presented and finally a restart expected scenario for the LHC beam vacuum system is described.

For the design of future accelerators, in particular, the beam vacuum of the large hadron collider (LHC), a 27 km circumference proton collider to be built at CERN, ‘white light’ (WL) and monochromatic VUV synchrotron radiation (SR) have been used to measure, both qualitatively and quantitatively, electron emission from candidate vacuum chamber materials. Emphasis has been placed on measuring the photoelectron yields (PY) and the energy distribution of the emitted electrons. These parameters are relevant to gas desorption, the LHC cryogenic cooling capacities and the possible creation of an electron cloud which may cause beam instabilities. Proposed materials, prepared on an industrial scale, such as 50 μm OFE Cu co-laminated onto a high Mn-content stainless steel, exhibit significant modifications when exposed to the WL spectrum from the BESSY TGM7 beamline. Surface cleaning treatments, such as sample annealing and ion bombardment, induce substantial changes to the electron emission which therefore indicate that such surfaces would not be constant, in terms of electron emission, during machine operation. Surfaces which are considered to be constant electron emitters, such as annealed TiZr alloys and commercial non-evaporable getters, were also investigated. These results and their implications for the choice of the material to be used for the LHC are discussed.

The room temperature vacuum system of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has been designed to ensure vacuum stability and beam lifetime of 100 h with nominal current of 0.56 A per beam at 7 TeV of energy. The requirements for the interaction regions are moreover driven to minimize the background noise of the experiments, to keep the equivalent hydrogen gas density below 1013 molecules of H2 per m3. \nDuring the last two years, the LHC operated with proton beams at a maximum energy of 4 TeV, coasting for several hours each time, causing vacuum pressure increase owing to different effects: synchrotron radiation, electron cloud and localized temperature increase due to high order modes (HOMs). \nAll these phenomena liberated an important gas load from the vacuum chamber walls, which led in some cases to a partial or a total saturation of the NEG coating. To match the design vacuum performances and hence to schedule technical interventions for NEG vacuum reactivation, it is necessary to take into account all these aspects and to regularly evaluate the saturation level of the NEG coating. \nThis study analyses the saturation level of the NEG coated beam pipes in the LHC accelerator. Pressure reading variation of the Bayard-Alpert gauges without circulating proton beams are analysed and combined with laboratory studies of the NEG saturation behaviour. In addition, Vacuum Stability Code (VASCO) simulations are used to define the gas density profile change due to the saturation process in the NEG coated beam pipes.

In the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), about 6 km of the UHV beam pipe are at room temperature and serve as experimental or utility insertions. TiZrV non-evaporable getter (NEG) coating is used to maintain the design pressure during beam operation. Molecular desorption due to dynamic effects is stimulated during protons operation at high intensity. This phenomenon produces an important gas load from the vacuum chamber walls, which could lead to a partial or total saturation of the NEG coating. To keep the design vacuum performances and to schedule technical interventions for NEG reactivation, it is necessary to take into account all these aspects and to regularly evaluate the saturation level of the NEG coating. Experimental studies of a typical LHC vacuum sector were conducted in the laboratory in order to identify the best method to assess the saturation level of the beam pipe. Partial saturation of the NEG was performed and the effective pumping speed, transmission and capture probability are analysed.

During the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) 2011 run, significant vacuum and temperature increases were observed at the location of the LHC injection protection collimators (TDI) during the physics fills. Besides, measurements of the LHC transverse tune shift while changing the TDI gap showed that the impedance of the TDI was significantly higher than the LHC impedance model prediction based on multilayer infinite length theory. This contribution details the electromagnetic simulations performed with a full 3D model of the TDI to obtain both longitudinal and transverse impedances and their comparison with measured observables.

In 2011, the rapid increase of the luminosity performance of LHC came at the expense of increased temperature and pressure readings on several near-beam LHC equipments. In some cases, this beam induced heating was suspected to cause beam dumps and even degradation of the equipment. This contribution aims at gathering the observations of beam induced heating due to beam coupling impedance, their current level of understanding and possible actions that could be implemented during the winter stop 2011-2012.

During 2012 only a few beam dumps were attributed to vacuum sector valve closures and the vacuum surface and coating group was involved in only two urgent interventions that kept the beam off for less than two days each. In this paper the pressure threshold policy adopted since the beginning of the LHC running is examined in terms of beam vacuum performances and beam dumps. The so- called "pressure spikes" detected during these years are treated and correlated with the cryogenic temperature, the beam pipe dimensions and non-conformities. A review of the standard and special interventions performed on the beam pipe during technical stops and shutdowns is given, with a list of the main characteristics and foreseen outcomes. Finally, the vacuum expectations during LHC nominal runs, that will follow the LHC consolidations during the Long Shutdown 1 (LS1), are discussed.

CERN is currently operating the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with 3.5 TeV per beam. At this energy level, when the protons trajectory is bent, the protons emit synchrotron radiation (SR) with a critical energy of 5.5 eV. Under operation, SR induced molecular desorption is routinely observed in the LHC arcs, long straight sections and experiments. This contribution recalls the SR parameters over the LHC ring for the present and nominal beam parameters. Vacuum observations during energy ramp, after accumulation of dose and along the LHC ring are discussed. Expected pressure profiles and long term behaviours of vacuum levels will be also addressed.

During LHC beam commissioning with 150, 75 and 50-ns bunch spacing, important electron-cloud effects, like pressure rise, cryogenic heat load, beam instabilities or emittance growth, were observed. The main strategy to combat the LHC electron cloud, defined about ten years ago, relies on the surface conditioning arising from the chamber-surface bombardment with cloud electrons. In a standard model, the conditioning state of the beam-pipe surface is characterized by three parameters: 1. most importantly, the secondary emission yield δmax; 2. the incident electron energy at which the yield is maximum, ε_max; and 3. the probability of elastic reflection of low-energy primary electrons hitting the chamber wall, R. Since at the LHC no in-situ secondary-yield measurements are available, we compare the relative local pressure-rise measurements taken for different beam configurations against simulations in which surface parameters are scanned. This benchmarking of measurements and simulations is used to infer the secondary-emission properties of the beam-pipe at different locations around the ring and at various stages of the surface conditioning. In this paper we present the methodology and first results from applying the technique to the LHC.

The understanding of complex and/or large vacuum systems operating at cryogenic temperatures requires a specific knowledge of vacuum science at such temperatures. At room temperature, molecules with a low binding energy to a surface are not pumped. However, at cryogenic temperatures, their sojourn time is significantly increased, thanks to the temperature reduction, which allows a ‘cryopumping’. This pumping mechanism is described by different regimes. Sticking probabilities, capture factor and thermal transpiration concepts are also used to characterize the pumping mechanism. At cryogenic temperature, a gas load into a vacuum system turns into an increase of the surface coverage and of its associated vapour pressure. Some adsorption isotherms of H2 and He which differ with key parameters such as surface nature and temperature are also presented. As an application of this field of vacuum technology, the vacuum system of the CERN Large Hadron Collider is introduced. The implementation of cryosorbers and the consequences of He leaks in the accelerator beam tube are reported.

The coupling impedances of the upgraded beam screen and cold/warm transition of the cold bore experiment (COLDEX) vacuum chamber installed in the SPS machine are investigated, and the power dissipated in the circular beam screen with narrow longitudinal slots are evaluated. A comparison with the experimental results is also presented.

Novel measurements of the electron cloud have been performed in the SPS in 2004. The LHC beam in the SPS consists of a number of short bunch trains. By varying the distance between these trains it is possible to test the survival of the electrons after the bunch passage. In this paper, results from simulations and experiments are compared.

We benchmark the predictions of electron-cloud buildup simulations against measurements at the CERN SPS. Specifically we compare the electron flux at the wall, electron-energy spectra, heat loads and the spatial distribution of the electrons for two different bunch spacings, with variable magnetic fields, and for several chamber temperatures and associated surface conditions. The simulations employ a modified, improved version of the ECLOUD code. The main changes are briefly described. We finally present updated simulation results for the heat load in the cold LHC arcs.

In particle accelerators with intense positively charged bunched beams, an electron cloud may induce beam instabilities and the related beam induced electron multipacting (BIEM) can result in an undesired pressure rise. In a cryogenic machine such as the large hadron collider (LHC), the BIEM will introduce additional heat load. When present, synchrotron radiation (SR) may generate a significant number of photoelectrons, that may play a role in determining the onset and the detailed properties of the electron cloud related instability. Since electrons are constrained to move along field lines, those created on the accelerator equator in a strong vertical (dipole) field cannot participate in the e-cloud build-up. Therefore, for the LHC there has been a continuous effort to find solutions to absorb the photons on the equator. The solution adopted for the LHC dipole beam screens is a saw-tooth structure on the illuminated equator. SR from a bending magnet beamline at ELETTRA, Italy (BEAR) has been used to measure the reflectivities (forward, back-scattered and diffuse), for a flat and a saw-tooth structured Cu co-laminated surface using both white light SR, similar to the one emitted by LHC, and monochromatic light. Our data show that the saw-tooth structure does reduce the total reflectivity and modifies the photon energy distribution of the reflected photons. The implications of these results on the LHC arc vacuum system are discussed. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the gas desorbed via photon stimulated molecular desorption or electron stimulated molecular desorption will be physisorbed onto the beam screen held between 5 and 20 K. Studies of the effects of the electron cloud onto a LHC type cryogenic vacuum chamber have been done with the cold bore experiment (COLDEX) installed in the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Experiments performed with gas condensates such as H2, H2O, CO and CO2 are described. Implications for the LHC design and operation are discussed.

A calorimeter, WAMPAC, operating at room temperature has been designed and installed into the SPS to measure directly the electron cloud induced heat load due to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)-type proton beam. Theoretical behavior, calibrations, measurement protocols, preliminary results, and simulation benchmarking are presented. Scaling of the results to the LHC indicated a linear heating power in a LHC dipole of about $500\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mW}\text{ }{\mathrm{m}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ for $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{10}\text{ }\mathrm{\text{protons}}/{\mathrm{\text{bunch}}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ for a copper surface which is not fully conditioned (maximum of secondary electron yield $\ensuremath{\sim}1.9$).

A cold bore experiment (COLDEX) has been installed in the electron-positron accumulator (EPA) at CERN. The ~2 m long COLDEX cryostat, that may be cooled to below 3 K, is fitted with an actively cooled perforated beam screen to simulate the conditions in the cold arcs of the LHC. Initially, gas desorption yields were obtained using an external synchrotron radiation beam line by exposing the beam screen to grazing incident radiation with a critical energy of 194 eV. In an extended period of EPA operation and during a dedicated period for LHC studies, COLDEX was installed into the EPA ring to study more specifically the influence of the bunched positron and electron beams with the cold bore / beam screen vacuum system. The results from these experiments and some predictions applicable for the LHC will be presented.

Electron cloud effects have been recently observed in the CERN SPS in the presence of LHC type proton beams with 25 ns bunch spacing. Above a threshold intensity of about 4 X 10^12 protons in 81 consecutive bunches, corresponding to half of the nominal

Motivated by a potential electron cloud instability and the possible existence of electron mulitpacting in the LHC vacuum system, that may result in additional gas desorption and unmanageable heat loads on the cryogenic system, an extensive experimental research program is underway at CERN to quantify the key parameters driving these phenomena. Parameters, such as: photoelectron yield, photon reflectivity, secondary electron yield etc. from industrially prepared surfaces have been quantified. In addition to their dependence on photon dose the effect of temperature and presence of external fields has also been studied.

In the absence of collisions, inelastic interactions between protons and residual gas molecules are the main source of radiation in the room temperature parts of the LHC long straight sections. In this case the variations in the radiation levels will reflect the dynamics of the residual pressure distribution. Based on the background simulations for the long straight section of the LHC IP5 and on the current understanding of the residual pressure dynamics, we evaluate the possibility to use the radiation monitors for the purpose of the vacuum diagnostic, and we present the first estimates of the predicted monitor counts for different scenarios of the machine operation.

In the context of future accelerators and, in particular, the beam vacuum of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 km circumference proton collider to be built at CERN, VUV synchrotron radiation (SR) has been used to study both qualitatively and quantitatively candidate vacuum chamber materials. Emphasis is given to show that angle and energy resolved photoemission is an extremely powerful tool to address important issues relevant to the LHC, such as the emission of electrons that contributes to the creation of an electron cloud which may cause serious beam instabilities and unmanageable heat loads on the cryogenic system. Here we present not only the measured photoelectron yields from the proposed materials, prepared on an industrial scale, but also the energy and in some cases the angular dependence of the emitted electrons when excited with either a white light (WL) spectrum, simulating that in the arcs of the LHC, or monochromatic light in the photon energy range of interest. The effects on the materials examined of WL irradiation and /or ion sputtering, simulating the SR and ion bombardment expected in the LHC, were investigated. The studied samples exhibited significant modifications, in terms of electron emission, when exposed to the WL spectrum from the BESSY Toroidal Grating Monochromator beam line. Moreover, annealing and ion bombardment also induce substantial changes to the surface thereby indicating that such surfaces would not have a constant electron emission during machine operation. Such characteristics may be an important issue to define the surface properties of the LHC vacuum chamber material and are presented in detail for the various samples analyzed. It should be noted that all the measurements presented here were recorded at room temperature, whereas the majority of the LHC vacuum system will be maintained at temperatures below 20 K. The results cannot therefore be directly applied to these sections of the machine until measurements at cryogenic temperatures, i.e., in the presence of cryosorbed gas layers, are obtained. However, these results are directly relevant to all the warm regions of the LHC vacuum system, such as the experimental vacuum chambers and warm element vacuum chambers in the insertion regions.

During the year 2011 the LHC operated for 682 fills, meaning 247 days and 2 hours of stable beam in total. From 368 bunches per beam at 150 ns bunch spacing circulating in the ring in December 2010, the 2011 proton physic ended with 1380 bunches per beam circulating with 50 ns bunch spacing. The machine performances increased in parallel with the vacuum improvement thanks to a well performed scrubbing run in April 2011 and a continuous conditioning of the beam pipes while the machine was running. The 2011 LHC operation ended with one month of ions physic runs. During the machine operation various phenomena of beam - vacuum interaction were detected, analyzed and solved. This paper describes the pressure behaviour along the machine layout and mainly in specific components position like the TDI (Target Dump Injection) and the MKI injector kickers. The “pressure spike” phenomena near the experiment CMS and in some Dipole 1 (D1) regions are discussed. Finally, results obtained during the 25 ns machine developments are presented.

During the next long shutdown, the majority of the 557 LHC beam and insulation vacuum volumes must be vented and opened. The activities proposed by the Vacuum, Surfaces and Coatings Group will be elaborated, including their implications for other Groups, together will an estimation of the extensive VSC workload that is generated by other activities e.g. splice consolidation, new collimators and experimental area upgrades.

Two LHC injection kicker systems, each comprising 4 magnets per ring, produce a kick of 1.3 T·m with a rise-time of less than 900 ns and a flattop ripple of less than ±0.5%. A beam screen is placed in the aperture of each magnet, to provide a path for the image current of the LHC beam and screen the ferrite yoke against wake fields. The screen consists of a ceramic tube with conductors in the inner wall. The initially implemented beam screen ensured a low rate of electrical breakdowns and an adequately low beam coupling impedance. Operation with increasingly higher intensity beams, stable for many hours at a time, has resulted in substantial heating of the ferrite yoke, sometimes requiring cool-down over several hours before the LHC can be refilled. During the long shutdown in 2013/2014 all eight kicker magnets will be upgraded with an improved beam screen and an increased emissivity of the vacuum tank. In addition equipment adjacent to the injection kickers and various vacuum components will be modified to reduce the vacuum pressure near to the kickers during high-intensity operation. This paper discusses the upgrades.

During the 2011 LHC proton run, different dynamic vacuum effects were detected and analysed in the LHC: electron cloud, synchrotron radiation, pressure spikes and beam induced heating effects . Electron clouds (EC) build up and pressure rises were measured with different bunch spacings and in different positions of the LHC. After a scrubbing run period performed in April 2011, the secondary electron yield of the vacuum surfaces was reduced to a level so that the EC effect was not anymore a limiting factor for the operation. Pressure spikes during injection, energy ramp and stable beams were observed mainly in LSS2 and LSS8 and in some cases lead to beam dumps. Beam induced heating effects were detected in different locations of the accelerator, mainly in TDI, MKI and TCP collimators in LSS7. This paper reviews all these observations and summarizes the mitigation solutions deployed for each location during the Winter Technical Stop (WTS) 2011-2012.