Protection of the LHC against Unsynchronised Beam Aborts

An unsynchronised beam abort in the LHC could damage downstream accelerator components, in particular the extraction septum magnets, the experimental low-beta triplet magnet apertures and the tertiary collimators. Although the LHC beam dumping system includes design features to minimise their frequency, such unsynchronised aborts cannot be excluded. A system of protection devices comprising fixed and moveable diluters and collimators will protect the downstream LHC aperture from the misdirected bunches in case of such a failure. The sources of unsynchronised aborts are described, together with the requirements and design of the protection devices and their expected performance. The accompanying operational requirements and envisaged solutions are discussed, in particular the problem of ensuring the local orbit at the protection devices.