How does the Large Hadron Collider work?
The ATLAS detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. (Credit: CERN) Note: This article was originally published by Symmetry magazine. Read the original article. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) plays with Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc², to transform matter into energy and then back into different forms of matter.
What is the energy of the protons in the Hadron Collider?
The protons each have an energy of 6.5 TeV, giving a total collision energy of 13 TeV. At this energy, the protons have a Lorentz factor of about 6,930 and move at about 0.999 999 990 c, or about 3.1 m/s (11 km/h) slower than the speed of light (c). It takes less than 90 microseconds (μs) for a proton to travel 26.7 km around the main ring.
Where are the four colliders located at CERN?
All the controls for the accelerator, its services and technical infrastructure are housed under one roof at the CERN Control Centre. From here, the beams inside the LHC are made to collide at four locations around the accelerator ring, corresponding to the positions of four particle detectors – ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb.
Where does the hadron collider tunnel cross the border?
The tunnel crosses the border between Switzerland and France at four points, with most of it in France. Surface buildings hold ancillary equipment such as compressors, ventilation equipment, control electronics and refrigeration plants.
The LHC consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way. (Image: Anna Pantelia/CERN) Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle beams travel at close to the speed of light before they are made to collide.
How are protons accelerated in the CERN accelerator?
Inside CERN’s accelerator complex, protons are accelerated close to the speed of light. Their normally rounded forms squish along the direction of motion as special relativity supersedes the classical laws of motion for processes taking place at the LHC.
Is the LSAG report endorsed by CERN Council?
The LSAG report has been reviewed and endorsed by CERN’s Scientific Policy Committee, a group of external scientists that advises CERN’s governing body, its Council. The following summarises the main arguments given in the LSAG report.