Advances in the understanding and operations of superconducting colliders

Abstract

Chromaticity drift during injection is a well-known phenomenon in superconducting colliders, such as the Tevatron, HERA and RHIC. Imperfect compensation of the drift effects can contribute to beam loss and emittance growth. It is caused by the drift of the sextupole component in the dipole magnets due to current redistribution in its superconducting coils. Recently extensive studies of chromaticity drift were conducted at the Tevatron, aiming at the improvement of the luminosity performance in the ongoing run II. These studies included not only beam experiments, but also extensive off-line magnetic measurements on spare Tevatron dipoles. Less known, until recently, is that chromaticity drift is often accompanied by tune and coupling drift. This was recently discovered in the Tevatron. We believe that these effects are the product of systematic beam offset in conjunction with the sextupole drifts (and their compensation in the chromaticity correctors). These discoveries are most relevant to the upcoming LHC, where the drift effects will have even more dramatic consequences given the high beam current. It is therefore not a surprise that CERN has been the source of major advances in the understanding of dynamic effects during the LHC superconducting magnet development. The following will briefly review the CERN results as well as those of the recent Fermilab studies. A new result, which will be presented here also, is related to fast drifts occurring in the first few seconds of the injection plateau. Again, these fast drifts were observed first in the Tevatron and efforts are underway to explain them. Finally this paper will attempt to derive the implications of these drift effects on LHC commissioning and operation.