CERN Accelerating science

The project reached several key milestones since the last Newsletter. Among the many achievements I would like to highlight here the celebration for the completion of all Civil Engineering work in January at CERN.

The HL-LHC collaboration office continues to update existing and put in place new agreements. Since the beginning of 2023 we have been busy updating UK Phase 1 agreements allowing for the final invoicing to take place.

The now annual Cost & Schedule review 2023 will take place between the 13th and the 17th of November. Following the management request, this will be an extended edition, as opposed to the ‘light’ version in 2022.

The recent IPAC’23 conference was an ideal opportunity to present and discuss within our community the status of the beam dynamics simulations for Run 4, marking the start of HL-LHC operation.

The last batch of the 54 high order corrector magnets was tested in LASA by the end of 2022, and all correctors have been delivered at CERN. In February 2023, a celebration was held to mark the end of the first production of HL-LHC magnets.

The Cavity-String beamline and Fundamental Power Couplers were assembled in the ISO4 cleanroom jointly with STFC and CERN staff.

While the HL-LHC era for proton collisions starts in 2029 with the operational Run 4, the aim is to achieve the target HL heavy-ion performance already in Run 3 following the upgrade of the ALICE experiment during LS2.

The HL-LHC Cold Powering Systems transfer the current from the power converters, located in the new underground galleries, to the new superconducting magnets of the HL-LHC Inner Triplets and Matching Sections at P1 and P5

The research and development activities pursued in beam diagnostics within the framework of the High Luminosity LHC project are coming to a crucial phase.

As highlighted in the latest report on the HL-LHC IT String, the installation and operation of this test stand marks a very significant milestone for the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project.

This year, it will finally become possible to descend to the underground areas of the HL-LHC by lift, at Point 5 before the summer season and at Point 1 in November.

Following the handover of the civil engineering buildings and structures in the period from May 2020 until January 2023, the installation of the general services and technical infrastructures has started at the HL-LHC worksites of P1 (ATLAS) and P5 (CMS).