In pursuit of some of the
most exciting science of
our time, the Large Hadron
Collider has pushed the
boundaries of technology
and the scale of science
experiments to new
extremes.
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Circumference
26,659 meters
Particles accelerated
Protons and heavy ions of lead
Maximum beam energy
7 tera-electronvolts (TeV), or 7x10
12
electronvolts, per proton. All protons
combined will have an energy
equivalent to a person in a 1500 kg vehicle driving at about 25,000
km per hour.
Total number of magnets
Approximately 9300; number of
large dipole magnets, which steer
the beam around the ring: 1232.
Each dipole magnet (photo to the right)
is 14.3 meters long and weighs
around 35 tons.
Magnetic field
8.33 Tesla, or about 200,000 times
the strength of the Earth's magnetic
field, at beam energy of 7 TeV.
Super cold
The LHC will operate at 1.9 Kelvin
(about 300 degrees Celsius below
room temperature), colder than
outer space. The beampipe's
ultrahigh vacuum of 10-10
Torr
(about 3 million molecules per
cm3 ) is approximately equivalent
to the vacuum pressure at an
altitude above Earth of 1000 km.
For comparison, the International
Space Station's orbital altitude
is 380 km.
Super conducting
The total length of the superconducting
wire for the LHC, the
world's largest superconducting
installation, is 250,000 km, enough
to go 6.8 times around the equator.
It consists of 6300 strands of
niobium-titanium filaments,
embedded in copper (photo right).
Each filament is about one tenth
of the thickness of a human hair.
When ultracold, the wire conducts
electricity without resistance.
Super fast
At their top energy of 7 TeV, the
particles in the LHC will travel at
0.999999991 the speed of light.
Each proton will travel around the
27-kilometer ring 11,000 times per
second. Collisions will occur so
often (up to one billion times a
second) that particles from one
collision will still be traveling
through a detector when the next
collision happens at the detector 's center.
Super computing
The LHC experiments together
will generate more than 10 million
gigabytes of data every year–a
stack of CDs 20 km high. LHC scientists
have created a grid computing
system in which more than
100 small and large computing
centers share the responsibility
for storing, processing, and analyzing
the data. PC farms such as
this one at CERN (photo right) will
provide the computing power.
Control room
The CERN Control Centre (photo
bottom right) combines the control functions
for the accelerators, the cryogenic
system, and the technical
infrastructure. It has 39 work places.
ATLAS
1800+ members from more than 150
universities and laboratories in 35
countries. The ATLAS cavern could
hold the nave of Notre Dame
Cathedral.
CMS
2000+ members from 180 institutions
in 38 countries. The CMS
magnet is the largest solenoid ever
built, and has a maximum field
strength of 4 Tesla–approximately
100,000 times the strength of the
Earth's magnetic field.
ALICE
1000+ members from 98 institutions
in 29 countries. The ALICE Time
Projection Chamber, a cylinder 5
meters in diameter and 5 meters in
length, has approximately 560,000
read-out channels.
LHCb
550+ members from almost 50 institutions
in 15 countries. The LHCb
experiment searches for CP-violation,
the asymmetry in the behavior
of matter and antimatter, in B mesons.
Text: Ben Berger; CERN Web pages
Graphic and photos: CERN
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