LHC

LHC

Coordinates: 46°14′N 06°03′E / 46.233°N 6.05°E / 46.233; 6.05

Beyond the Standard Model
Simulated Large Hadron Collider CMS particle detector data depicting a Higgs boson produced by colliding protons decaying into hadron jets and electrons
Standard Model
Evidence
  • Hierarchy problem
  • Dark matter
  • Cosmological constant problem
  • Strong CP problem
  • Neutrino oscillation
Theories
  • Technicolor
  • Kaluza–Klein theory
  • Grand Unified Theory
  • Theory of everything
  • String theory
  • Superfluid vacuum theory
Supersymmetry
  • MSSM
  • Superstring theory
  • Supergravity
Quantum gravity
  • String theory
  • Loop quantum gravity
  • Causal dynamical triangulation
  • Canonical quantum gravity
  • Superfluid vacuum theory
Experiments
  • Gran Sasso
  • INO
  • LHC
  • SNO
  • Super-K
  • Tevatron
Large Hadron Collider
(LHC)
LHC experiments
ATLAS A Toroidal LHC Apparatus
CMS Compact Muon Solenoid
LHCb LHC-beauty
ALICE A Large Ion Collider Experiment
TOTEM Total Cross Section, Elastic Scattering and Diffraction Dissociation
LHCf LHC-forward
MoEDAL Monopole and Exotics Detector At the LHC
LHC preaccelerators
p and Pb Linear accelerators for protons (Linac 2) and Lead (Linac 3)
(not marked) Proton Synchrotron Booster
PS Proton Synchrotron
SPS Super Proton Synchrotron
Hadron colliders
Intersecting Storage Rings CERN, 1971–1984
Super Proton Synchrotron CERN, 1981–1984
ISABELLE BNL, cancelled in 1983
Tevatron Fermilab, 1987–2011
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider BNL, 2000–present
Superconducting Super Collider Cancelled in 1993
Large Hadron Collider CERN, 2009–present
Super Large Hadron Collider Proposed, CERN, 2019–
Very Large Hadron Collider Theoretical

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) from 1998 to 2008, with the aim of allowing physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics and high-energy physics, and particularly prove or disprove the existence of the hypothesized Higgs boson and of the large family of new particles predicted by supersymmetric theories. The LHC is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing human understanding of the deepest laws of nature. It contains six detectors each designed for specific kinds of exploration.

The LHC was built in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. It lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference, as deep as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.

As of 2012 the LHC remains one of the largest and most complex experimental facilities ever built. Its synchrotron is designed to initially collide two opposing particle beams of either protons at up to 7 teraelectronvolts (7 TeV or 1.12 microjoules) per nucleon, or lead nuclei at an energy of 574 TeV (92.0 µJ) per nucleus (2.76 TeV per nucleon-pair), with energies to be doubled to around 14 TeV collision energy - more than ten times any predecessor collider - by around 2014. Collision data was also anticipated to be produced at an unprecedented rate of tens of petabytes per year, to be analysed by a grid-based computer network infrastructure connecting 140 computing centers in 35 countries (by 2012 the LHC Computing Grid was the world's largest computing grid, comprising over 170 computing facilities in a worldwide network across 36 countries).

The LHC went live on 10 September 2008, with proton beams successfully circulated in the main ring of the LHC for the first time, but 9 days later a magnet quench incident resulting from an electrical fault caused operations to halt for 14 months following a helium gas explosion that damaged over 50 superconducting magnets and their mountings, and contaminated the vacuum pipe. On 20 November 2009 proton beams were successfully circulated again, with the first recorded proton–proton collisions occurring 3 days later at the injection energy of 450 GeV per beam. On 30 March 2010, the first collisions took place between two 3.5 TeV beams, setting the current world record for the highest-energy man-made particle collisions, and the LHC began its planned research program.

By November 2012 the LHC had discovered two previously unobserved particles (χb (3P) bottomonium state and a massive boson awaiting identification but suspected to be a Higgs boson), created a quark–gluon plasma, and recorded the first observations of the very rare decay of the Bs meson into two muons (Bs0 → μ+-), a major test of supersymmetry.

The LHC will operate at 4 TeV per beam until the end of 2012, 0.5 TeV higher than in 2010 and 2011. It will then go into shutdown for 20 months for upgrades to allow full energy operation (7 TeV per beam), with reopening planned for late 2014.

Read more about LHC:  Etymology, Purpose, Design, Findings, Proposed Upgrade, Cost, Computing Resources, Safety of Particle Collisions, Operational Challenges, Construction Accidents and Delays, Popular Culture