Macroparticle Simulation Studies of the LHC Beam Dynamics in the Presence of Electron Cloud

Beam quality degradation caused by the Electron Cloud (EC) effects has been identified as one of the main performance limitations for the high intensity 25 ns beams in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). When a proton bunch passes through an EC, electrons are attracted towards the transverse center of the beam resulting into an increasing electron density within the bunch. The effects driven by the interaction of the electrons with the bunch have been studied with macroparticle simulations in order to evaluate, in different operational scenarios, the threshold for the coherent instabilities as well as the incoherent tune spread. This contribution will summarize the main findings of the simulation study and compare them with the available experimental observations.