UFOs in the LHC

In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) localized and recurring beam losses have been observed, which usually persist for several hundred microseconds. With increasing beam energy these losses were found to pose a serious risk to the machine availability, as some of these events can cause quenches in the superconducting magnets. The current understanding is that these losses are caused by falling microparticles that interact with the proton beam. To describe these so-called UFOs (unidentified falling objects) and their dynamics, a model was developed starting from the approach that only gravitational and electrostatic forces act on a neutrally charged particle. However, the model's results cannot reproduce the actual data from the LHC's beam loss monitors (BLMs), which indicates a more complex UFO dynamic. Experimental studies and further analysis of the BLM data are planned to investigate the UFO dynamics in greater detail and to understand origins and release mechanisms for microparticles in the LHC beam pipe.