Vacuum system for LHC

Abstract

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is planned at CERN will be housed in the tunnel of the Large Electron Positron collider (LEP) and will store two counter-rotating proton beams with energies of up to 7 TeV in a 27 km accelerator/storage ring with superconducting magnets. The vacuum system for the LHC will be at cryogenic temperatures (between 1.9 and 20 K) and will be exposed to synchrotron radiation emitted by the protons. A stringent limitation on the vacuum is given by the energy deposition in the superconducting coils of the magnets due to nuclear scattering of the protons on residual gas molecules because this may provoke a quench. This effect imposes an upper limit to a local region of increased gas density (e.g. a leak), while considerations of beam lifetime (100 h) will determine more stringent requirements on the average gas density. The proton beam creates ions from the residual gas which may strike the vacuum chamber with sufficient energy to lead to a pressure ‘run-away’ when the net ion induced desorption yield exceeds a stable limit. Synchrotron radiation induced gas desorption, well known from electron rings, also affects the dynamic vacuum in the cold LHC by the gradual accumulation of easily re-desorbable, condensed gas and by the steeply rising H 2 vapour pressure as the coverage exceeds a monolayer. These dynamic pressure effects will be limited to an acceptable level by installing a perforated ‘beam screen’ which shields the cryopumped gas molecules at 1.9 K from synchrotron radiation and which also absorbs the synchrotron radiation power at a higher and, therefore, thermodynamically more efficient temperature.