This year’s LHC performance workshop took place in Chamonix from 29 January to 1 February. As always, its purpose was to look back on lessons learned from 2017, and forward to the year ahead. 2018, however, is no ordinary year. It is the last year of Run 2, with much work to be done to prepare for the LHC’s second long shutdown (LS2).
For this reason, just one of the four days was devoted to the traditional backward and forward looks, with three days given to planning LS2 and technical discussions on the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) and High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) projects, in particular how best to optimise the 20 days of machine development allocated to these projects. Since this year is the last chance for machine development before 2021, more days may be added if necessary and if the integrated luminosity goal is reached after the summer. The Chamonix workshop concluded with a meeting of the CERN Machine Advisory Committee (CMAC) on Friday, 2 February, which focused on technical issues in advance of the third LIU and HL-LHC cost and schedule review, which will take place during the last week of March.
One important outcome from Chamonix ‘18 is that the objective of reaching a total of 150 fb-1 of data for Run 2 looks to be achievable. We also started to map out an energy roadmap for the LHC: valuable input for the ongoing European Strategy update. We will run the machine at 13 TeV in 2018, ramping up to 14 TeV after LS2. Dipole bypass diode consolidation through the DISMAC project (Diode Insulation and Superconducting MAgnets Consolidation), accompanied by a training programme at the end of LS2 will make this possible. A study was also launched to evaluate the possibility of pushing the energy higher, to 15 TeV, for Run 4 or Run 5.
In total, some 250 people contributed to the Chamonix workshop this year. I’m sure that many more of you will want to know about their deliberations. I would therefore like to invite you to a summing-up and conclusion session in the Main Auditorium at 2.00 p.m. on 7 March 2018