Operational Experience with Luminosity Scans for Beam Size Estimation in 2016 LHC Proton Physics Operation

Luminosity scans were regularly performed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as of 2015 as a complementary method for measuring the beam size. The CMS experiment provides bunch-by-bunch luminosities at sufficient rates to allow evaluation of bunch-by-bunch beam sizes, and the scans are performed in the horizontal and vertical plane separately. Closed orbit differences between bunches can also be derived by this analysis. During 2016 LHC operation, these scans were also done in an automated manner on a regular basis, and the analysis was improved to significantly reduce the systematic uncertainty, especially in the crossing plane. This contribution first highlights the recent improvements to the analysis and elaborates on their impact. The measured beam sizes during 2016 proton physics operation are then shown and compared to measurements from synchrotron light telescopes and estimates based on the absolute luminosities of the LHC experiments.