Impact of Long Range Beam-Beam Effects on Intensity and Luminosity Lifetimes from the 2015 LHC Run

Luminosity is one of the key parameters that determines the performance of colliding beams in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Luminosity can therefore be used to quantify the impact of beam-beam interactions on the beam lifetimes and emittances. The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) project aims to reach higher luminosities, approximately a factor of 7 larger than the nominal LHC at peak luminosity without crab cavities. Higher luminosities are achieved by increasing the bunch populations and reducing the transverse beam sizes. This results in stronger beam-beam effects. Here the LHC luminosity and beam intensity decay rates are analysed as a function of reducing beam separation with the aim of characterising the impact of beam-beam effects on the luminosity and beam lifetime. The analysis and results are discussed with possible application to the HL-LHC upgrade.