Operational considerations on the stability of colliding beams

While well studied in the absence of beam-beam and while colliding head-on, the stability of the LHC beams can be very critical in intermediate steps. During the squeeze, the long-range beam-beam interaction becomes a critical component of the beam's dynamics. Also, while the transverse separation at the interaction points is collapsed, the beam-beam forces change drastically, possibly deteriorating the beam's stability. Finally, during luminosity production, the configuration of the LHC in 2012 included few bunches without head-on collision in any of the interaction points having different stability properties. Stability diagrams are being evaluated numerically in these configurations in an attempt to explain instabilities observed in these phases during the 2012 proton run of the LHC.