Machine Protection and Interlock Systems for Circular Machines - Example for LHC

TL;DR

This paper discusses the design and implementation of machine protection and interlock systems for circular particle accelerators, emphasizing the high energy stored in the LHC and the importance of safety measures to prevent damage.

Contribution

It provides an overview of protection system design principles and illustrates them with examples from the LHC, highlighting considerations for high-energy accelerators.

Findings

Protection systems are crucial for high-energy accelerators like the LHC.

Designing effective protection requires understanding accelerator physics and potential failure modes.

Examples from LHC demonstrate practical protection system implementations.

Abstract

This paper introduces the protection of circular particle accelerators from accidental beam losses. Already the energy stored in the beams for accelerators such as the TEVATRON at Fermilab and Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN could cause serious damage in case of uncontrolled beam loss. With the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the energy stored in particle beams has reached a value two orders of magnitude above previous accelerators and poses new threats with respect to hazards from the energy stored in the particle beams. A single accident damaging vital parts of the accelerator could interrupt operation for years. Protection of equipment from beam accidents is mandatory. Designing a machine protection system requires an excellent understanding of accelerator physics and operation to anticipate possible failures that could lead to damage. Machine protection includes beam and equipment monitoring, a system to safely stop beam operation (e.g. extraction of the beam towards a dedicated beam dump block or stopping the beam at low energy) and an interlock system providing the glue between these systems. This lecture will provide an overview of the design of protection systems for accelerators and introduce various protection systems. The principles are illustrated with examples from LHC.