Electron Cloud in the CERN Accelerator Complex

Abstract

Operation with closely spaced bunched beams causes the build-up of an Electron Cloud (EC) in both the LHC and the two last synchrotrons of its injector chain (PS and SPS). Pressure rise and beam instabilities are observed at the PS during the last stage of preparation of the LHC beams. The SPS was affected by coherent and incoherent emittance growth along the LHC bunch train over many years, before scrubbing has finally suppressed the EC in a large fraction of the machine. When the LHC started regular operation with 50 ns beams in 2011, EC phenomena appeared in the arcs during the early phases, and in the interaction regions with two beams all along the run. Operation with 25 ns beams (late 2012 and 2015), which is nominal for LHC, has been hampered by EC induced high heat load in the cold arcs, bunch dependent emittance growth and degraded beam lifetime. Dedicated and parasitic machine scrubbing is presently the weapon used at the LHC to combat EC in this mode of operation. This talk summarises the EC experience in the CERN machines (PS, SPS, LHC) and highlights the dangers for future operation with more intense beams as well as the strategies to mitigate or suppress the effect.