A Beam-based Measurement of the LHC Beam Dump Kicker Waveform

The increase of the LHC collision energy to 13 TeV after Long Shutdown 1 has doubled the operational energy range of the LHC beam dump system (LBDS) during Run 2. In preparation for the safe operation of the LHC, the waveform of the LBDS extraction kicker was measured using beam-based measurements for the first time during the machine's re-commissioning period. The measurements provide a reference for a more precise synchronisation of the dump system and abort-gap timing, and provide an independent check of the system's calibration. The precision of the beam-based technique allowed the necessary adjustments to the LBDS trigger delays to ensure the synchronous firing of the LBDS at all beam energies up to 6.5 TeV. In this paper the measurement and simulation campaign is described and the performance of the system reported.