Abstract: The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to accelerate and bring into collision high-energy protons as well as heavy ions. Accidents involving direct beam impacts on collimators can happen in both cases. The LHC collimation system is designed to handle the demanding requirements of high-intensity proton beams. Although proton beams have 100 times higher beam power than the nominal LHC lead ion beams, specific problems might arise in case of ion losses due to different particle-collimator interaction mechanisms when compared to protons. This paper investigates and compares direct ion and proton beam impacts on collimators, in particular tertiary collimators (TCTs), made of the tungsten heavy alloy INERMET (R) 180. Recent measurements of the mechanical behavior of this alloy under static and dynamic loading conditions at different temperatures have been done and used for realistic estimates of the collimator response to beam impact. Using these new measurements, a numerical finite element method (FEM) approach is presented in this paper. Sequential fast-transient thermostructural analyses are performed in the elastic-plastic domain in order to evaluate and compare the thermomechanical response of TCTs in case of critical beam load cases involving proton and heavy ion beam impacts.

Abstract: The correct functioning of a collimation system is crucial to safely and successfully operate high-energy particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). However, the requirements to handle high-intensity beams can be demanding, and accident scenarios must be well studied in order to assess if the collimator design is robust against possible error scenarios. One of the catastrophic, though not very probable, accident scenarios identified within the LHC is an asynchronous beam dump. In this case, one (or more) of the 15 precharged kicker circuits fires out of time with the abort gap, spraying beam pulses onto LHC machine elements before the machine protection system can fire the remaining kicker circuits and bring the beam to the dump. If a proton bunch directly hits a collimator during such an event, severe beam-induced damage such as magnet quenches and other equipment damage might result, with consequent downtime for the machine. This study investigates a number of newly defined jaw error cases, which include angular misalignment errors of the collimator jaw. A numerical finite element method approach is presented in order to precisely evaluate the thermomechanical response of tertiary collimators to beam impact. We identify the most critical and interesting cases, and show that a tilt of the jaw can actually mitigate the effect of an asynchronous dump on the collimators. Relevant collimator damage limits are taken into account, with the aim to identify optimal operational conditions for the LHC.

Abstract: The D-0 decay into K-s(0) and a scalar resonance, f(0)(500), f(0)(980), a(0)(980), are studied obtaining the scalar resonances from final state interaction of a pair of mesons produced in a first step in the D-0 decay into K-s(0) and the pair of pseudoscalar mesons. This weak decay is very appropriate for this kind of study because it allows to produce the three resonances in the same decay in a process that is Cabibbo-allowed, hence the rates obtained are large compared to those of (B) over bar (0) decays into J/psi and a scalar meson that have at least one Cabibbo-suppressedvertex. Concretely the a(0)(980) production is Cabibbo-allowedhere, while it cannot be seen in the (B) over bar (0)(s) decay into J/psi a(0)(980) and is doubly Cabibbo-suppressedin the (B) over bar (0) decay into J/psi a(0)(980) and has not been identified there. The fact that the three resonances can be seen in the same reaction, because there is no isospin conservation in the weak decays, offers a unique opportunity to test the ideas of the chiral unitary approach where these resonances are produced from the interaction of pairs of pseudoscalar mesons.