High Luminosity Upgrade of LHC UK - Phase II
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Planned Impact
Done in main proposal
People |
ORCID iD |
| Carsten Welsch (Principal Investigator) | |
| Hao Zhang (Researcher) |
Publications
A. Rossi
(2023)
DC and pulsed electron beam test facility at CERN
Amir Salehilashkajani
(2021)
Non-Invasive Beam Profile Monitoring for the HL-LHC Hollow Electron Lens
Butcher,William
(2026)
Experimental investigation into supersonic gas jet induced beam perturbation
Castro Sequeiro C
(2024)
Beam gas curtain monitor: Vacuum studies for LHC integration and operation
in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
H. Zhang
(2024)
BGC monitor: first year of operation at the LHC
| Title | Beam Gas Curtain monitor |
| Description | The Beam Gas Curtain (BGC) monitor measures the fluorescence signal generated from the interaction between the supersonic gas curtain and the charged particle beams. The signal can be used to get the beam sizes and beam emittances. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The tool helps the Large Hadron Collider to get absolute and independent measurements of the averaged transverse profile and emittance for the full-intensity LHC proton and ion beams for the full cycle of operation include beam injection, energy ramping up, and stable operation. It is already transitioning from an experimental device to a fully operational instrument in the LHC and is marked as the baseline instrument for the HLLHC upgrade and operation. |
| URL | https://home.cern/news/news/accelerators/beam-gas-curtain-new-instrument-lhc-run-3 |
| Description | Liverpool-CERN-GSI collaboration |
| Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | My team designed, manufactured, and commissioned the beam-induced fluorescent profile monitor based on a supersonic gas jet at the Cockcroft Institute inside the Daresbury laboratory. The monitor was tested with an in-house electron gun to potentially show the ability to measure the proton beam in the LHC. The team accumulated the operational experience of this monitor and studied the gas dynamics using both simulations and experiments to optimize the geometry used in the monitor such as sizes and distances of the nozzle and skimmers. The first monitor was delivered to CERN and tested in a standalone lab and electron beam test stand. The monitor has been installed at the LHC and is waiting for the experiment. |
| Collaborator Contribution | GSI provided expert views on beam-induced fluorescent cross-sections, optics design for such monitors, and imaging intensifiers under the CERN-GSI collaboration contract. They also offer one intensifier camera for test in the CERN experiment. CERN provides space and professional support from the vacuum group, mechanics group, and engineering design group for the experiment that occurred at CERN. |
| Impact | 1. Demonstrate the BGC monitor can be used for a hollow electron lens. 2. Install the BGC monitor into the LHC. This collaboration involves experts in disciplines such as accelerator physics, detector, vacuum science, and mechanical engineering. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Liverpool-CERN-GSI collaboration |
| Organisation | Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres |
| Department | GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | My team designed, manufactured, and commissioned the beam-induced fluorescent profile monitor based on a supersonic gas jet at the Cockcroft Institute inside the Daresbury laboratory. The monitor was tested with an in-house electron gun to potentially show the ability to measure the proton beam in the LHC. The team accumulated the operational experience of this monitor and studied the gas dynamics using both simulations and experiments to optimize the geometry used in the monitor such as sizes and distances of the nozzle and skimmers. The first monitor was delivered to CERN and tested in a standalone lab and electron beam test stand. The monitor has been installed at the LHC and is waiting for the experiment. |
| Collaborator Contribution | GSI provided expert views on beam-induced fluorescent cross-sections, optics design for such monitors, and imaging intensifiers under the CERN-GSI collaboration contract. They also offer one intensifier camera for test in the CERN experiment. CERN provides space and professional support from the vacuum group, mechanics group, and engineering design group for the experiment that occurred at CERN. |
| Impact | 1. Demonstrate the BGC monitor can be used for a hollow electron lens. 2. Install the BGC monitor into the LHC. This collaboration involves experts in disciplines such as accelerator physics, detector, vacuum science, and mechanical engineering. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | A contributed talk at HB25 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | H. Zhang gave a contributed talk titled 'Status and future of the Beam Gas Curtain: a non-invasive profile and emittance monitor for high-intensity hadron machines' at the HB2024 in Huizhou, China. More than 200 international researchers, scientists, PDRAs, and students attended this conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://indico.jacow.org/event/83/ |
| Description | A contributed talk at IBIC24 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | H. Zhang gave a contributed talk titled 'BGC monitor: first year of operation at the LHC' at the IBIC24 in Beijing, China. More than 200 international researchers, scientists, PDRAs and students attended this conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://indico.jacow.org/event/80/timetable/#20240913.detailed |
| Description | A contributed talk at IPAC24 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Graduate student O Stringer gave a contributed talk titled 'First measurement of the proton beam and lead ion beam in the LHC using beam gas curtain monitor' in the IPAC24 conference in Nashville, USA. More than 1000 researchers, scientists, PDRAs and PGRs attended this conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://indico.jacow.org/event/63/timetable/#20240519 |
| Description | A invited talk at IBIC23 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Graduate student Ondrej gave an invited talk at IBIC23 to report the latest results measured at the Large Hadron Collider using the monitor developed in the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://indico.lightsource.ca/event/9/page/60-program |
| Description | A talk at 15th HL-LHC Collaboration Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Hao Zhang gave a talk titled 'Beam gas curtain (BGC) monitor for hollow electron beam'. He reported recent progress on the monitor design, build, and testing, and readiness for installation in a CERN electron-beam test stand facility. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://indico.cern.ch/event/1559978/ |
| Description | A talk at the Particle Accelerators And Beams Annual Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | It is a talk given at the Particle Accelerators And Beams Annual Conference held by the Institute of Physics at Liverpool. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.iop.org/events/particle-accelerators-and-beams-annual-conference#gref |
| Description | An invited talk for UK-CERN accelerator celebration day |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Carsten Welsch gave an invited talk at the UK-CERN Accelerator Celebration Day, talking about the non-invasive beam monitor for the High Luminosity LHC. This is a summary of the work we did in the funding period and highlights the success because of the collaboration between the University of Liverpool, STFC, and CERN. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.cockcroft.ac.uk/2025/12/10/uk-cern-accelerator-celebration-day/ |
| Description | Invited talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk at IOP Advancing Radiobiology Technology (ART) workshop on Tuesday Oct 24, 2023 in London, UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |