Beam Loss Monitors for Heavy Ion Operation

The performance of the LHC as a heavy-ion collider is expected to be limited by a variety of beam loss mechanisms that are non-existent, or substantially different, in the case of protons. Among these are ultra-peripheral interactions of the colliding beams and the collimation inefficiency. Loss patterns are different and require additional installations of beam loss monitors. Further, the relation between energy deposition in superconducting magnet coils and the loss monitor signals has to be reassessed for heavy ions in order to determine the thresholds for dumping beams.