Analysis of fast losses in the LHC with the BLM system

About 3600 Ionization Chambers are located around the LHC ring to detect beam losses that could damage the equipment or quench superconducting magnets. The Beam Loss Monitors (BLMs) integrate the losses in 12 different time intervals (from 40 us to 83.8 s) allowing for different abort thresholds depending on the duration of the loss and the beam energy. The signals are also recorded in a database at 1 Hz for offline analysis. During the 2010 run, a limiting factor in the machine availability were sudden losses appearing around the ring on the ms time scale and detected exclusively by the BLM system. It is believed that such losses originate from dust particles falling into the beam, or being attracted by its strong electromagnetic field. This document describes some of the properties of these ”Unidentified Falling Objects” (UFOs) putting special emphasis on their dependence on beam parameters (energy, intensity, etc). The subsequent modification of the BLM beam abort thresholds for the 2011 run that were made to avoid unnecessary beam dumps caused by these UFO losses are also discussed.