Pre-cycle selection for the superconducting main magnets of the Large Hadron Collider

Pre-cycles for setting up the main magnets of the Large Hadron Collider are necessary for ensuring field reproducibility and low field-decay rates at injection. In this paper we propose standard pre-cycles for the main magnets of the LHC. We study the influence of the pre-cycle parameters on the field decay at injection by two different models. One already proven model is semi-empirical based on magnetic measurements of the magnets. The other is a new network based model of a Rutherford cable which directly calculates the current redistribution and associated magnetization change in the cable strands. The pre-cycle to be used may depend on the history of the machine or may have to be changed because of unforeseen phenomena in the machine. The choice of a new pre-cycle on the basis of magnetic measurements alone is a lengthy process. We confirm the usefulness of the network based model as a tool for selecting new pre-cycles, including decay-blocking degaussing pre-cycles, and compare with magnetic measurements.