LHC DAMPER BEAM COMMISSIONING IN 2010

The LHC transverse dampers were commissioned in 2010 with beam and their use at injection energy of 450 GeV, during the ramp and in collisions at 3.5 TeV for Physics has become part of the standard operations procedure. The system proved important to limit emittance blow-up at injection and to maintain smaller than nominal emittances throughout the accelerating cycle. We describe the commissioning of the system step-by-step as done in 2010 and summarize its performance as achieved for proton as well as ion beams in 2010. Although its principle function is to keep transverse oscillations under control, the system has also been used as an exciter for abort gap cleaning and tune measurement. The dedicated beam position measurement system with its low noise properties provides additional possibilities for diagnostics.