AN IMPROVED COLLIMATION SYSTEM FOR THE LHC

The handling of the high-intensity LHC beams in a super-conducting environment requires a high-robustness collimation system with unprecedented cleaning efficiency. For gap closures down to 2.2 mm no beam instabilities must be induced from the collimator impedance. A difficult trade-off between collimator robustness, cleaning efficiency and collimator impedance is encountered. The conflicting LHC requirements are resolved with a phased approach, relying on low Z collimators for maximum robustness and hybrid metallic collimators for maximum performance. Efficiency is further enhanced with an additional cleaning close to the insertion triplets. The machine layouts have been adapted to the new requirements. The LHC collimation hardware is presently under design and has entered into the prototyping and early testing phase. Plans for collimator tests with beam are presented.