Beam-machine Interaction at the CERN LHC

Abstract

The radiation field generated by a high energy and intensity accelerator is of concern in terms of element functionality threat, component damage, electronics reliability, and material activation, but also provides signatures that allow actual operating conditions to be monitored. The shower initiated by an energetic hadron involves many different physical processes, down to slow neutron interactions and fragment de-excitation, which need to be accurately described for design purposes and to interpret operation events. The experience with the transport and interaction Monte Carlo code FLUKA at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), operating at CERN with 4 TeV proton beams (and equivalent magnetic rigidity Pb beams) and approaching nominal luminosity and energy, is presented. Design, operation and upgrade challenges are reviewed in the context of beam-machine interaction account and relevant benchmarking examples based on radiation monitor measurements are shown.