Performance of the LHC Transverse Damper with Bunch Trains

In 2012 the LHC was operated for Physics with bunch trains at 50 ns spacing. Tests have been performed with the nominal design bunch spacing of 25 ns. The transverse damper has been an essential element to provide beam stability for the multi-bunch beam with up to 1380 bunches used at 50 ns spacing. We report on the experience gained with 50 ns spacing and the improvements in the signal pro- cessing tested for the future 25 ns operation. The increase in bandwidth required for 25 ns spacing constituted a particular challenge. The response of the system was carefully measured and the results used to digitally pre-distort the drive signal to compensate for a drop in gain of the power system for higher frequencies. The bunch-by-bunch data collected from the feedback signal path provided valuable information during the 2012 Physics run that can be further explored for beam diagnostics purposes and instability analysis in the future. Performance estimates are given for the 7 TeV run planned for 2015, at 25 ns bunch spacing.