LHC operation at higher energy and luminosity

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva) was commissioned and operated in the years 2009-2013 up to a beam energy of 4 TeV. A peak luminosity of 0.77 · 1034 cm−2s−1 was reached and an integrated luminosity of around 29 fb−1 was delivered to both ATLAS and CMS. This performance allowed the discovery of a scalar boson. The LHC is presently in a shutdown phase dedicated to consolidation and maintenance that will allow the restart of beam operation in early 2015 at an increased beam energy of 6.5 to 7TeV. Maximum acceptable pileup, effectiveness of electron-cloud scrubbing, and fast loss events are some of the issues that will shape the choice of operational parameters, cycle setup, and the commissioning strategy. The baseline choices and options for the restart after the shutdown are presented. In addition the roadmap for future performance upgrades is sketched.