Longitudinal emittance blow-up in the LHC

The LHC relies on Landau damping for longitudinal stability. To avoid decreasing the stability margin at high energy, the longitudinal emittance must be continuously increased during the acceleration ramp. Longitudinal blow-up provides the required emittance growth. The method was implemented through the summer of 2010. We inject band-limited RF phase-noise in the main accelerating cavities during the whole ramp of about 11 minutes. Synchrotron frequencies change along the energy ramp, but the digitally created noise tracks the frequency change. The position of the noise-band, relative to the nominal synchrotron frequency, and the bandwidth of the spectrum are set by pre-defined constants, making the diffusion stop at the edges of the demanded distribution. The noise amplitude is controlled by feedback using the measurement of the average bunch length. This algorithm reproducibly achieves the programmed bunch length of about 1.2 ns (4 σ) at flat top with low bunch-to-bunch scatter and provides a stable beam for physics coast.