Coherent Beam-Beam Effects in the LHC

In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) two proton beams of similar intensities collide in several interaction points. It is well known that the head-on collision of two beams of equal strength can excite coherent modes whose frequencies are separated from the incoherent spectrum of oscillations of individual particles. This can lead to the loss of Landau damping and possibly to unstable motion. The beam-beam effect in the LHC is further complicated by a large number of bunches (2808 per beam), a finite crossing angle and gaps in the bunch train. The coherent beam-beam effects under various conditions and operational scenarios are studied analytically and with multiparticle simulations. We give an overview of the main results and present proposals to overcome these difficulties together with possible side effects.