Successful beam test of the SPS-to-LHC transfer line TI2

Image of the first beam spot on the last BTV screen traversed by the beam during the TI 2 test.

At 12:03:47 on 28 October a beam passed down the 2.7 km of the new SPS-to-LHC transfer line TI 2 at the first attempt, to within some 50 m of the LHC tunnel. After initial tuning, a range of measurements was carried out with a low intensity proton beam and preliminary analyses look good. After the test, no increase in radiation levels was found in either the LHC or ALICE, and the zones were rapidly opened again for access.

As from next year TI 2 will regularly transport a beam from the SPS to the LHC injection point of Ring 1, near Point 2 (ALICE). The TI 8 transfer line, which will bring particles from the SPS to the injection point in Ring 2, near Point 8 (LHCb), was commissioned successfully with low intensity beam in 2004.

The two LHC injection lines have a combined length of 5.6 km and comprise some seven hundred warm magnets. While around 70 magnets were re-used from earlier CERN installations, the majority were produced by the Budker Institute for Nuclear Physics (BINP) in Novosibirsk, as part of Russia’s contribution to the LHC project.