Machine Protection and Interlock Systems for Circular Machines - Example for LHC

This paper introduces the protection of circular particle accelerators from accidental beam losses. Already the energy stored in the beams for accelerators such as the TEVATRON at Fermilab and Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN could cause serious damage in case of uncontrolled beam loss. With the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the energy stored in particle beams has reached a value two orders of magnitude above previous accelerators and poses new threats with respect to hazards from the energy stored in the particle beams. A single accident damaging vital parts of the accelerator could interrupt operation for years. Protection of equipment from beam accidents is mandatory. Designing a machine protection system requires an excellent understanding of accelerator physics and operation to anticipate possible failures that could lead to damage. Machine protection includes beam and equipment monitoring, a system to safely stop beam operation (e.g. extraction of the beam towards a dedicated beam dump block or stopping the beam at low energy) and an interlock system providing the glue between these systems. This lecture will provide an overview of the design of protection systems for accelerators and introduce various protection systems. The principles are illustrated with examples from LHC.Comment: 23 pages, contribution to the 2014 Joint International Accelerator School: Beam Loss and Accelerator Protection, Newport Beach, CA, USA , 5-14 Nov 201

Variable-beamwidth antennas

Two effective designs have been developed for Cassegrain and Gregorian antenna configurations. Each provides for both high-gain and low-gain operations. Cassegrain system sacrifices some efficiency due to small amount of increased spillover loss. Gregorian system provides for independent spillover control with two feeds

Bidirectional zoom antenna

Antenna comprises two parabolic cylinders placed orthogoanlly to each other. One cylinder serves as main reflector, and the other as subreflector. Cylinders have telescoping sections to vary antenna beamwidth. Beamwidth can be adjusted in elevation, azimuth, or both. Design has no restriction as to choice of polarization

Electronic scanning of 2-channel monopulse patterns

Scanning method involves separation of scanning capability into two independent degrees of freedom. One degree of freedom corresponds to azimuthal scanning and other to elevation scanning on spiral coordinate axes. Scanning of both prime-feed and mirrored patterns is accomplished with reduction of mechanical vibration damage to large antennas

Electronic scanning of 2-channel monopulse patterns Patent

Monopulse scanning network for scanning volumetric antenna patter

Focal axis resolver for offset reflector antennas

Method and apparatus for determining the focal axis of an asymmetrical antenna such as an offset paraboloid reflector whose physical rim is not coincident with the boundary of the electrical aperture but whose focal point is known is provided. A transmitting feed horn array consisting of at least two feed horn elements is positioned asymmetrically on either side of an estimated focal axis which is generally inclined with respect to the boresight axis of the antenna. The feed horn array is aligned with the estimated focal axis so that the phase centers (CP sub 1, CP sub 2) of the two feed horn elements are located on a common line running through the focal point (F) orthogonally with respect to the estimated focal axis

An improvement in blackbody cavity design

Setting the axis of the conical cavity at an angle to the axis of observation removes the imperfection at the apex of the cone from the direct observation area of the radiometer. Fillet no longer behaves as a nonuniformity in the blackbody

QCD Phenomenology of Charm Production at HERA

We compare different schemes for the treatment of heavy quark production in Deep-Inelastic Scattering (DIS). For fully-integrated quantities such as $F_{2}(x,Q^{2})$, we advocate the use of the General-Massive Variable-Flavor-Number (GM-VFN) scheme; we present some results showing the progress of a Next-to-Leading Order calculation in this scheme. For differential quantities, the Fixed-Flavor-Number (FFN) scheme provides a more appropriate starting point. We present a new calculation of the azimuthal distribution of charm quark production in DIS. All results have been obtained using a Monte Carlo program under development.Comment: 5 pages, Latex/aipproc, 4 figures, presented at DIS 97, Chicago, IL, April 14-18,199

Transfer-matrices for series-type microwave antenna circuits

Transfer matrices are developed which permit analysis and computer evaluation of certain series type microwave antenna circuits associated with an L-Band microwave radiometer (LBMR) under investigation at Goddard Space Flight Center. This radiometer is one of several diverse instrument designs to be used for the determination of soil moisture, sea state, salinity, and temperature data. Four port matrix notation is used throughout for the evaluation of LBMR circuits with mismatched couplers and lossy transmission lines. Matrix parameters in examples are predicted on an impedance analysis and an assumption of an array aperture distribution. The notation presented is easily adapted to longer and more varied chains of matrices, and to matrices of larger dimension