What is the large hadron collider-LHC and where is the large hadron collider located?
Located at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), on the border between France and Switzerland, and put into operation for the first time on September 10, 2008, the LHC (from the English, Large Hadron Collider ) is the largest particle accelerator ever built with a circumference of 27 kilometers in diameter, 175 meters below ground level.
The Large Hadron Collider – LHC is the largest and most powerful particle accelerator that has ever existed. Within the LHC are some of the most sophisticated instruments ever built . L os collider are characterized by accelerated particle beams to energies very near the speed of light to make them collide with each other after or on other targets.Then, from detectors of all kinds, the results are recorded in order to understand a little more of what we are made of. To put it in some way, this type of accelerator is the way that scientists have to try to scrutinize what is inside matter.
Along the tunnel through which the particles collide, there are several detectors that record data for various study purposes. The main experiences are:
- ALICE – A L arge I on C ollider E xperiment (Large Ion Collider Experiment):
This detector seeks to unravel the hot and dense matter created from the collision of heavy ions at high energies. More than 100 physicists from 111 laboratories and universities in 31 different countries work on this experiment.
- ATLAS – A L oroidal T HC A pparatu s (Toroidal Instrumental Device for LHC):
It seeks to detect the Higgs Boson and supersymmetric particles, and to analyze the physical properties in high energy. The construction of this detector is the result of the collaboration of 172 institutes from 37 countries and has more than 2500 scientists.
- CMS – C ompact M uon S olenoid (Compact Muon Solenoid):
It basically has the same objectives as the ATLAS detector, but it is more compact. More than 2600 people from 180 scientific institutes participated in its construction.
- LHCb – L arge H adron C ollider “ b eauty” ( beauty refers to the bottom quark ):
Developed to measure the rare decay of mesons with either the bottom or anti-bottom quark, it also seeks to measure the violation of symmetry between particles and antiparticles (such as electron and positron). The experiment has 650 scientists from 48 institutes in 13 countries.
- LHCf – L arge H adron C ollider “ f orward” :
The word forward is used in the name because the detector works in the region after collisions. It seeks to experiment on cosmic rays created from high energy collisions. In this experiment, 22 scientists work, representing 10 institutes from 4 countries.
- TOTEM – Tot al E lastic and diffractive cross section M easurement :
It seeks to measure the size of the protons and the luminosity of the collisions at the LHC. For this, it has 50 scientists from 10 institutes in 8 countries.
The Higgs Boson is a hypothetical elementary particle, which, if observed, will explain the origin of the mass of the other elementary particles.
The LHC went into operation on September 10, 2008, but was shut down nine days later, after a helium leak used to cool the tunnel. After 14 months the accelerator was restarted, on November 20, 2009, and the first collision, which happened on March 30, 2010, generated an energy of 7 TeV (7 teraelectron-volts).
Probably the first results obtained from this experiment will take months to be processed, but it can be said that scientists are getting closer and closer to unraveling the mysteries of the origin of the Universe.
11 curiosities about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
In the framework of physics , its fundamental objective is the search for the origin and the ultimate constituents of atoms, their basic components, that is, the so-called elementary particles.. And so, by paying close attention to the products resulting from these collisions, physicists learn about the laws of Nature. However, thanks to particle accelerators, and the need to develop parallel technologies for their construction and operation, other achievements have been achieved that have contributed to the development of science and the well-being of humanity in a considerable way. Some examples are found in computer science, modern cryptography, satellite geographic positioning or in the digitization of medical images and radiotherapy, among many others. We present you a journey inside the LHC in which to discover some of its secrets and achievements .
