Investigation of Injection Losses at the Large Hadron Collider with Diamond Based Particle Detectors

During the operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2015, increased injection losses were observed. To minimize stress on accelerator components in the injection regions of the LHC and to guarantee an efficient operation these losses needed to be understood and possible mitigation techniques should be studied. Measurements with diamond particle detectors revealed the loss structure with ns-resolution for the first time. Based on these measurements, recaptured beam from the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) surrounding the nominal bunch train was identified as the major contributor to the injection loss signals. Methods to reduce the recaptured beam in the SPS were successfully tested and verified with the diamond particle detectors. In this paper the detection and classification of LHC injection losses are described. The methods to reduce these losses and verification measurements are presented and discussed.