The Large Hadron Collider

Introduction:

Our understanding of the Universe is about to

change...

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic

scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the
border between Switzerland and France about 100 m
underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists
to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental
building blocks of all things. It will revolutionize our
understanding, from the minuscule world deep within
atoms to the vastness of the Universe.

Two beams of subatomic particles called 'hadrons' –

either protons or lead ions – will travel in opposite
directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy
with every lap. Physicists will use the LHC to recreate the
conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two
beams head-on at very high energy. Teams of physicists
from around the world will analyze the particles created in
the collisions using special detectors in a number of
experiments dedicated to the LHC.

There are many theories as to what will result from

these collisions, but what's for sure is that a brave new
world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator, as
knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the
workings of the Universe. For decades, the Standard Model
of particle physics has served physicists well as a means of
understanding the fundamental laws of Nature, but it does
not tell the whole story. Only experimental data using the
higher energies reached by the LHC can push knowledge
forward, challenging those who seek confirmation of
established knowledge, and those who dare to dream
beyond the paradigm.
Why the LHC:

A few unanswered questions...

The LHC was built to help scientists to answer key

unresolved questions in particle physics. The
unprecedented energy it achieves may even reveal some
unexpected results that no one has ever thought of!

For the past few decades, physicists have been able to

describe with increasing detail the fundamental particles
that make up the Universe and the interactions between
them. This understanding is encapsulated in the Standard
Model of particle physics, but it contains gaps and cannot
tell us the whole story. To fill in the missing knowledge
requires experimental data, and the next big step to
achieving this is with LHC.

Newton's unfinished business...

What is mass?

What is the origin of mass? Why do tiny particles

weigh the amount they do? Why do some particles have no
mass at all? At present, there are no established answers to
these questions. The most likely explanation may be found
in the Higgs boson, a key undiscovered particle that is
essential for the Standard Model to work. First
hypothesized in 1964, it has yet to be observed.

The ATLAS and CMS experiments will be actively

searching for signs of this elusive particle.

An invisible problem...

What is 96% of the universe made of?

Everything we see in the Universe, from an ant to a

galaxy, is made up of ordinary particles. These are
collectively referred to as matter, forming 4% of the
Universe. Dark matter and dark energy are believed to
make up the remaining proportion, but they are incredibly
difficult to detect and study, other than through the
gravitational forces they exert. Investigating the nature of
dark matter and dark energy is one of the biggest
challenges today in the fields of particle physics and
cosmology.

The ATLAS and CMS experiments will look for

supersymmetric particles to test a likely hypothesis for the
make-up of dark matter.

Nature's favouritism...

Why is there no more antimatter?

We live in a world of matter – everything in the

Universe, including ourselves, is made of matter.
Antimatter is like a twin version of matter, but with
opposite electric charge. At the birth of the Universe, equal
amounts of matter and antimatter should have been
produced in the Big Bang. But when matter and antimatter
particles meet, they annihilate each other, transforming into
energy. Somehow, a tiny fraction of matter must have
survived to form the Universe we live in today, with hardly
any antimatter left. Why does Nature appear to have this
bias for matter over antimatter?

The LHC experiment will be looking for differences

between matter and antimatter to help answer this question.
Previous experiments have already observed a tiny
behavioral difference, but what has been seen so far is not
nearly enough to account for the apparent matter–
antimatter imbalance in the Universe.
Secrets of the Big Bang

What was matter like within the first second of the

Universe’s life?

Matter, from which everything in the Universe is

made, is believed to have originated from a dense and hot
cocktail of fundamental particles. Today, the ordinary
matter of the Universe is made of atoms, which contain a
nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, which in turn
are made of quarks bound together by other particles called
gluons. The bond is very strong, but in the very early
Universe conditions would have been too hot and energetic
for the gluons to hold the quarks together. Instead, it seems
likely that during the first microseconds after the Big Bang
the Universe would have contained a very hot and dense
mixture of quarks and gluons called quark–gluon plasma.

The ALICE experiment will use the LHC to recreate

conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang, in
particular to analyse the properties of the quark-gluon
plasma.

Hidden worlds…

Do extra dimensions of space really exist?

 Einstein showed that the three dimensions of space are
related to time. Subsequent theories propose that further
hidden dimensions of space may exist; for example, string
theory implies that there are additional spatial dimensions
yet to be observed. These may become detectable at very
high energies, so data from all the detectors will be
carefully analysed to look for signs of extra dimensions.

Design:

The LHC is the world's largest and highest-energy

particle accelerator. The collider is contained in a circular
tunnel, with a circumference of 27 kilometres (17 mi), at a
depth ranging from 50 to 175 metres underground.

The 3.8 m wide concrete-lined tunnel, constructed

between 1983 and 1988, was formerly used to house the
Large Electron-Positron Collider. It 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 collider tunnel contains two adjacent parallel

beam pipes that intersect at four points, each containing a
proton beam, which travel in opposite directions around the
ring. Some 1,232 dipole magnets keep the beams on their
circular path, while an additional 392 quadrupole magnets
are used to keep the beams focused, in order to maximize
the chances of interaction between the particles in the four
intersection points, where the two beams will cross. In
total, over 1,600 superconducting magnets are installed,
with most weighing over 27 tonnes. Approximately 96
tonnes of liquid helium is needed to keep the magnets at
their operating temperature of 1.9 K, making the LHC the
largest cryogenic facility in the world at liquid helium
temperature.

Superconducting quadrupole electromagnets are used

to direct the beams to four intersection points, where
interactions between protons will take place.

Once or twice a day, as the protons are accelerated

from 450 GeV to 7 TeV, the field of the superconducting
dipole magnets will be increased from 0.54 to 8.3 tesla (T).
The protons will each have an energy of 7 TeV, giving a
total collision energy of 14 TeV (2.2 μJ). At this energy the
protons have a Lorentz factor of about 7,500 and move at
about 99.9999991% of the speed of light. It will take less
than 90 microsecond (μs) for a proton to travel once around
the main ring – a speed of about 11,000 revolutions per
second. Rather than continuous beams, the protons will be
bunched together, into 2,808 bunches, so that interactions
between the two beams will take place at discrete intervals
never shorter than 25 nanoseconds (ns) apart. However it
will be operated with fewer bunches when it is first
commissioned, giving it a bunch crossing interval of 75 ns.

Prior to being injected into the main accelerator, the

particles are prepared by a series of systems that
successively increase their energy. The first system is the
linear particle accelerator LINAC 2 generating 50 MeV
protons, which feeds the Proton Synchrotron Booster
(PSB). There the protons are accelerated to 1.4 GeV and
injected into the Proton Synchrotron (PS), where they are
accelerated to 26 GeV. Finally the Super Proton
Synchrotron (SPS) is used to further increase their energy
to 450 GeV before they are at last injected (over a period of
20 minutes) into the main ring. Here the proton bunches are
accumulated, accelerated (over a period of 20 minutes) to
their peak 7 TeV energy, and finally stored for 10 to 24
hours while collisions occur at the four intersection points.

The LHC will also be used to collide lead (Pb) heavy

ions with a collision energy of 1,150 TeV. The Pb ions will
be first accelerated by the linear accelerator LINAC 3, and
the Low-Energy Injector Ring (LEIR) will be used as an
ion storage and cooler unit. The ions then will be further
accelerated by the PS and SPS before being injected into
LHC ring, where they will reach an energy of 2.76 TeV per
nucleon.

Detectors
Six detectors have been constructed at the LHC,
located underground in large caverns excavated at the
LHC's intersection points. Two of them, the ATLAS
experiment and the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), are
large, general purpose particle detectors.[16] A Large Ion
Collider Experiment (ALICE) and LHCb have more
specific roles and the last two TOTEM and LHCf are very
much smaller and are for very specialized research. The
BBC's summary of the main detectors is:

* ATLAS – one of two so-called general purpose

detectors. Atlas will be used to look for signs of new
physics, including the origins of mass and extra
dimensions.

* CMS – the other general purpose detector will,

like ATLAS, hunt for the Higgs boson and look for clues to
the nature of dark matter.

* ALICE – will study a "liquid" form of matter

called quark-gluon plasma that existed shortly after the Big
Bang.
 * LHCb – equal amounts of matter and anti-matter
were created in the Big Bang. LHCb will try to investigate
what happened to the "missing" anti-matter.

How the LHC works:

The LHC, the world’s largest and most powerful
particle accelerator, is the latest addition to CERN’s
accelerator complex. It mainly consists of a 27 km ring of
superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating
structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way.

Inside the accelerator, two beams of particles travel at

close to the speed of light with very high energies before
colliding with one another. The beams travel in opposite
directions in separate beam pipes – two tubes kept at
ultrahigh vacuum. They are guided around the accelerator
ring by a strong magnetic field, achieved using
superconducting electromagnets. These are built from coils
of special electric cable that operates in a superconducting
state, efficiently conducting electricity without resistance or
loss of energy. This requires chilling the magnets to about
-271°C – a temperature colder than outer space! For this
reason, much of the accelerator is connected to a
distribution system of liquid helium, which cools the
magnets, as well as to other supply services.

Thousands of magnets of different varieties and sizes

are used to direct the beams around the accelerator. These
include 1232 dipole magnets of 15 m length which are used
to bend the beams, and 392 quadrupole magnets, each 5–7
m long, to focus the beams. Just prior to collision, another
type of magnet is used to 'squeeze' the particles closer
together to increase the chances of collisions. The particles
are so tiny that the task of making them collide is akin to
firing needles from two positions 10 km apart with such
precision that they meet halfway!

The CERN Control CentreAll 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 will be made to collide at
four locations around the accelerator ring, corresponding to
the positions of the particle detectors.

The LHC experiments:

The six experiments at the LHC are all run by
international collaborations, bringing together scientists
from institutes all over the world. Each experiment is
distinct, characterised by its unique particle detector.

The two large experiments, ATLAS and CMS, are

based on general-purpose detectors to analyse the myriad of
particles produced by the collisions in the accelerator. They
are designed to investigate the largest range of physics
possible. Having two independently designed detectors is
vital for cross-confirmation of any new discoveries made.
 Two medium-size experiments, ALICE and LHCb,
have specialised detectors for analysing the LHC collisions
in relation to specific phenomena.

Two experiments, TOTEM and LHCf, are much

smaller in size. They are designed to focus on ‘forward
particles’ (protons or heavy ions). These are particles that
just brush past each other as the beams collide, rather than
meeting head-on

The ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb detectors are

installed in four huge underground caverns located around
the ring of the LHC. The detectors used by the TOTEM
experiment are positioned near the CMS detector, whereas
those used by LHCf are near the ATLAS detector.

1.ALICE
A Large Ion Collider Experiment

For the ALICE experiment, the LHC will collide lead

ions to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang under
laboratory conditions. The data obtained will allow
physicists to study a state of matter known as quark-gluon
plasma, which is believed to have existed soon after the Big
Bang.

All ordinary matter in today’s Universe is made up of

atoms. Each atom contains a nucleus composed of protons
and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of electrons. Protons
and neutrons are in turn made of quarks which are bound
together by other particles called gluons. This incredibly
strong bond means that isolated quarks have never been
found.

Collisions in the LHC will generate temperatures more

than 100 000 times hotter than the heart of the Sun.
Physicists hope that under these conditions, the protons and
neutrons will 'melt', freeing the quarks from their bonds
with the gluons. This should create a state of matter called
quark-gluon plasma, which probably existed just after the
Big Bang when the Universe was still extremely hot. The
ALICE collaboration plans to study the quark-gluon plasma
as it expands and cools, observing how it progressively
gives rise to the particles that constitute the matter of our
Universe today.

A collaboration of more than 1000 scientists from 94

institutes in 28 countries works on the ALICE experiment
(March 2006).

ALICE setup
ALICE detector

* Size: 26 m long, 16 m high, 16 m wide

* Weight: 10 000 tonnes
* Design: central barrel plus single arm forward muon
spectrometer
* Location: St Genis-Pouilly, France. See ALICE in
Google Earth.

2.ATLAS:

A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS

ATLAS is one of two general-purpose detectors at the

LHC. It will investigate a wide range of physics, including
the search for the Higgs boson, extra dimensions, and
particles that could make up dark matter.
 With the same goals in physics as CMS, ATLAS will
record similar sets of measurements on the particles created
in the collisions – their paths, energies, and their identities.
However, the two experiments have adopted radically
different technical solutions and designs for their detectors'
magnet systems.

The main feature of the ATLAS detector is its

enormous doughnut-shaped magnet system. This consists
of eight 25-m long superconducting magnet coils, arranged
to form a cylinder around the beam pipe through the centre
of the detector. During operation, the magnetic field is
contained within the central cylindrical space defined by
the coils.
More than 1700 scientists from 159 institutes in 37
countries work on the ATLAS experiment (March 2006).

ATLAS setup

ATLAS detector
 * Size: 46 m long, 25 m high and 25 m wide. The
ATLAS detector is the largest volume particle detector ever
constructed.
* Weight: 7000 tonnes
* Design: barrel plus end caps
* Location: Meyrin, Switzerland.

3.CMS:

Compact Muon Solenoid

The CMS experiment uses a general-purpose detector

to investigate a wide range of physics, including the search
for the Higgs boson, extra dimensions, and particles that
could make up dark matter. Although it has the same
scientific goals as the ATLAS experiment, it uses different
technical solutions and design of its detector magnet system
to achieve these.

The CMS detector is built around a huge solenoid

magnet. This takes the form of a cylindrical coil of
superconducting cable that generates a magnetic field of 4
teslas, about 100 000 times that of the Earth. The magnetic
field is confined by a steel 'yoke' that forms the bulk of the
detector's weight of 12 500 tonnes. An unusual feature of
the CMS detector is that instead of being built in-situ
underground, like the other giant detectors of the LHC
experiments, it was constructed on the surface, before being
lowered underground in 15 sections and reassembled.
 More than 2000 scientists collaborate in CMS, coming
from 155 institutes in 37 countries (October 2006).

CMS setup

CMS detector

* Size: 21 m long, 15 m wide and 15 m high.

* Weight: 12 500 tonnes
* Design: barrel plus end caps
* Location: Cessy, France. See CMS in Google Earth.

4.LHCb:
 Large Hadron Collider beauty

The LHCb experiment will help us to understand why

we live in a Universe that appears to be composed almost
entirely of matter, but no antimatter.

It specialises in investigating the slight differences

between matter and antimatter by studying a type of
particle called the 'beauty quark', or 'b quark'.

Instead of surrounding the entire collision point with

an enclosed detector, the LHCb experiment uses a series of
sub-detectors to detect mainly forward particles. The first
sub-detector is mounted close to the collision point, while
the next ones stand one behind the other, over a length of
20 m.

An abundance of different types of quark will be

created by the LHC before they decay quickly into other
forms. To catch the b-quarks, LHCb has developed
sophisticated movable tracking detectors close to the path
of the beams circling in the LHC.

The LHCb collaboration has 650 scientists from 48

institutes in 13 countries (April 2006).

LHCb setup
LHCb detector

* Size: 21m long, 10m high and 13m wide

* Weight: 5600 tonnes
* Design: forward spectrometer with planar detectors
* Location: Ferney-Voltaire, France.

5.TOTEM:

TOTal Elastic and diffractive cross section

Measurement

The TOTEM experiment studies forward particles to

focus on physics that is not accessible to the general-
purpose experiments. Among a range of studies, it will
measure, in effect, the size of the proton and also monitor
accurately the LHC's luminosity.
 To do this TOTEM must be able to detect particles
produced very close to the LHC beams. It will include
detectors housed in specially designed vacuum chambers
called 'Roman pots', which are connected to the beam pipes
in the LHC. Eight Roman pots will be placed in pairs at
four locations near the collision point of the CMS
experiment.

Although the two experiments are scientifically

independent, TOTEM will complement the results obtained
by the CMS detector and by the other LHC experiments
overall.

The TOTEM experiment involves 50 scientists from

10 institutes in 8 countries (2006).
TOTEM detector

* Size: 440 m long, 5 m high and 5 m wide

* Weight: 20 tonnes
* Design: Roman pot and GEM detectors and cathode
strip chambers
* Location: Cessy, France (near CM)
6.LHCf:

Large Hadron Collider forward

The LHCf experiment uses forward particles created

inside the LHC as a source to simulate cosmic rays in
laboratory conditions.

Cosmic rays are naturally occurring charged particles

from outer space that constantly bombard the Earth's
atmosphere. They collide with nuclei in the upper
atmosphere, leading to a cascade of particles that reaches
ground level.

Studying how collisions inside the LHC cause similar

cascades of particles will help scientists to interpret and
calibrate large-scale cosmic-ray experiments that can cover
thousands of kilometres.

The LHCf experiment involves 22 scientists from 10

institutes in 4 countries (September 2006).
LHCf detector

* Size: two detectors, each measures 30 cm long, 80 cm

high, 10 cm wide
* Weight: 40 kg each
* Design:
* Location: Meyrin, Switzerland (near ATLAS)
LHC Computing Grid
The Large Hadron Collider will produce roughly 15
petabytes (15 million gigabytes) of data annually – enough
to fill more than 1.7 million dual-layer DVDs a year!

Thousands of scientists around the world want to

access and analyse this data, so CERN is collaborating with
institutions in 33 different countries to operate a distributed
computing and data storage infrastructure: the LHC
Computing Grid (LCG).

Data from the LHC experiments is distributed around

the globe, with a primary backup recorded on tape at
CERN. After initial processing, this data is distributed to
eleven large computer centres – in Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries,
Spain, Taipei, the UK, and two sites in the USA – with
sufficient storage capacity for a large fraction of the data,
and with round-the-clock support for the computing grid.

These so-called “Tier-1” centres make the data

available to over 120 “Tier-2” centres for specific analysis
tasks. Individual scientists can then access the LHC data
from their home country, using local computer clusters or
even individual PCs.
The LCG collaborates closely with the other CERN
grid projects:

* The LHC Computing Grid has been the driving force

behind the European multi-science grid Enabling Grids for
E-SciencE (EGEE), which continues to grow in size and
diversity of usage. EGEE currently involves more than 240
institutions in 45 countries, supporting science in more than
20 disciplines, including bioinformatics, medical imaging,
education, climate change, energy, agriculture and more.
* CERN openlab: The LCG project also works with
industry, in particular through the CERN openlab, where
leading IT companies are testing and validating cutting-
edge grid technologies using the LCG environment.

The safety of the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can achieve an
energy that no other particle accelerators have reached
before, but Nature routinely produces higher energies in
cosmic-ray collisions. Concerns about the safety of
whatever may be created in such high-energy particle
collisions have been addressed for many years. In the light
of new experimental data and theoretical understanding, the
LHC Safety Assessment Group (LSAG) has updated a
review of the analysis made in 2003 by the LHC Safety
Study Group, a group of independent scientists.

LSAG reaffirms and extends the conclusions of the

2003 report that LHC collisions present no danger and that
there are no reasons for concern. Whatever the LHC will
do, Nature has already done many times over during the
lifetime of the Earth and other astronomical bodies. 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 summarizes the main arguments given

in the LSAG report. Anyone interested in more details is
encouraged to consult it directly, and the technical
scientific papers to which it refers.

Cosmic rays

The LHC, like other particle accelerators, recreates the

natural phenomena of cosmic rays under controlled
laboratory conditions, enabling them to be studied in more
detail. Cosmic rays are particles produced in outer space,
some of which are accelerated to energies far exceeding
those of the LHC. The energy and the rate at which they
reach the Earth’s atmosphere have been measured in
experiments for some 70 years. Over the past billions of
years, Nature has already generated on Earth as many
collisions as about a million LHC experiments – and the
planet still exists. Astronomers observe an enormous
number of larger astronomical bodies throughout the
Universe, all of which are also struck by cosmic rays. The
Universe as a whole conducts more than 10 million million
LHC-like experiments per second. The possibility of any
dangerous consequences contradicts what astronomers see -
stars and galaxies still exist.
Microscopic black holes

Nature forms black holes when certain stars, much

larger than our Sun, collapse on themselves at the end of
their lives. They concentrate a very large amount of matter
in a very small space. Speculations about microscopic
black holes at the LHC refer to particles produced in the
collisions of pairs of protons, each of which has an energy
comparable to that of a mosquito in flight. Astronomical
black holes are much heavier than anything that could be
produced at the LHC.

According to the well-established properties of

gravity, described by Einstein’s relativity, it is impossible
for microscopic black holes to be produced at the LHC.
There are, however, some speculative theories that predict
the production of such particles at the LHC. All these
theories predict that these particles would disintegrate
immediately. Black holes, therefore, would have no time to
start accreting matter and to cause macroscopic effects.

Although theory predicts that microscopic black holes

decay rapidly, even hypothetical stable black holes can be
shown to be harmless by studying the consequences of
their production by cosmic rays. Whilst collisions at the
LHC differ from cosmic-ray collisions with astronomical
bodies like the Earth in that new particles produced in LHC
collisions tend to move more slowly than those produced
by cosmic rays, one can still demonstrate their safety. The
specific reasons for this depend whether the black holes are
electrically charged, or neutral. Many stable black holes
would be expected to be electrically charged, since they are
created by charged particles. In this case they would
interact with ordinary matter and be stopped while
traversing the Earth or Sun, whether produced by cosmic
rays or the LHC. The fact that the Earth and Sun are still
here rules out the possibility that cosmic rays or the LHC
could produce dangerous charged microscopic black holes.
If stable microscopic black holes had no electric charge,
their interactions with the Earth would be very weak. Those
produced by cosmic rays would pass harmlessly through
the Earth into space, whereas those produced by the LHC
could remain on Earth. However, there are much larger and
denser astronomical bodies than the Earth in the Universe.
Black holes produced in cosmic-ray collisions with bodies
such as neutron stars and white dwarf stars would be
brought to rest. The continued existence of such dense
bodies, as well as the Earth, rules out the possibility of the
LHC producing any dangerous black holes.
Strangelets

Strangelet is the term given to a hypothetical

microscopic lump of ‘strange matter’ containing almost
equal numbers of particles called up, down and strange
quarks. According to most theoretical work, strangelets
should change to ordinary matter within a thousand-
millionth of a second. But could strangelets coalesce with
ordinary matter and change it to strange matter? This
question was first raised before the start up of the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, RHIC, in 2000 in the
United States. A study at the time showed that there was no
cause for concern, and RHIC has now run for eight years,
searching for strangelets without detecting any. At times,
the LHC will run with beams of heavy nuclei, just as RHIC
does. The LHC’s beams will have more energy than RHIC,
but this makes it even less likely that strangelets could
form. It is difficult for strange matter to stick together in the
high temperatures produced by such colliders, rather as ice
does not form in hot water. In addition, quarks will be more
dilute at the LHC than at RHIC, making it more difficult to
assemble strange matter. Strangelet production at the LHC
is therefore less likely than at RHIC, and experience there
has already validated the arguments that strangelets cannot
be produced.

Vacuum bubbles

There have been speculations that the Universe is not

in its most stable configuration, and that perturbations
caused by the LHC could tip it into a more stable state,
called a vacuum bubble, in which we could not exist. If the
LHC could do this, then so could cosmic-ray collisions.
Since such vacuum bubbles have not been produced
anywhere in the visible Universe, they will not be made by
the LHC.

Magnetic monopoles

Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical particles with a

single magnetic charge, either a north pole or a south pole.
Some speculative theories suggest that, if they do exist,
magnetic monopoles could cause protons to decay. These
theories also say that such monopoles would be too heavy
to be produced at the LHC. Nevertheless, if the magnetic
monopoles were light enough to appear at the LHC, cosmic
rays striking the Earth’s atmosphere would already be
making them, and the Earth would very effectively stop and
trap them. The continued existence of the Earth and other
astronomical bodies therefore rules out dangerous proton-
eating magnetic monopoles light enough to be produced at
the LHC.

Other aspects of LHC safety:

Concern has recently been expressed that a 'runaway

fusion reaction' might be created in the LHC carbon beam
dump. The safety of the LHC beam dump had previously
been reviewed by the relevant regulatory authorities of the
CERN host states, France and Switzerland. The specific
concerns expressed more recently have been addressed in a
technical memorandum by Assmann et al. As they point
out, fusion reactions can be maintained only in material
compressed by some external pressure, such as that
provided by gravity inside a star, a fission explosion in a
thermonuclear device, a magnetic field in a Tokamak, or by
continuing isotropic laser or particle beams in the case of
inertial fusion. In the case of the LHC beam dump, it is
struck once by the beam coming from a single direction.
There is no countervailing pressure, so the dump material is
not compressed, and no fusion is possible.

Concern has been expressed that a 'runaway fusion

reaction' might be created in a nitrogen tank inside the LHC
tunnel. There are no such nitrogen tanks. Moreover, the
arguments in the previous paragraph prove that no fusion
would be possible even if there were.
 Finally, concern has also been expressed that the LHC
beam might somehow trigger a 'Bose-Nova' in the liquid
helium used to cool the LHC magnets. A study by Fairbairn
and McElrath has clearly shown there is no possibility of
the LHC beam triggering a fusion reaction in helium.

We recall that 'Bose-Novae' are known to be related to

chemical reactions that release an infinitesimal amount of
energy by nuclear standards. We also recall that helium is
one of the most stable elements known, and that liquid
helium has been used in many previous particle
accelerators without mishap. The facts that helium is
chemically inert and has no nuclear spin imply that no
'Bose-Nova' can be triggered in the superfluid helium used
in the LHC.

Comments on the papers by Giddings and

Mangano, and by LSAG

The papers by Giddings and Mangano and LSAG

demonstrating the safety of the LHC have been studied,
reviewed and endorsed by leading experts from the CERN
Member States, Japan, Russia and the United States,
working in astrophysics, cosmology, general relativity,
mathematics, particle physics and risk analysis, including
several Nobel Laureates in Physics. They all agree that the
LHC is safe.

The paper by Giddings and Mangano has been peer-

reviewed by anonymous experts in astrophysics and
particle physics and published in the professional scientific
journal Physical Review D. The American Physical Society
chose to highlight this as one of the most significant papers
it has published recently, commissioning a commentary by
Prof. Peskin from the Stanford Linear Accelerator
Laboratory in which he endorses its conclusions. The
Executive Committee of the Division of Particles and
Fields of the American Physical Society has issued a
statement endorsing the LSAG report.

The LSAG report has been published by the UK

Institute of Physics in its publication Journal of Physics G.
The conclusions of the LSAG report were endorsed in a
press release that announced this publication.

The conclusions of LSAG have also been endorsed by

the Particle and Nuclear Physics Section (KET) of the
German Physical Society. A translation into German of the
complete LSAG report may be found on the KET website,
as well as here. (A translation into French of the complete
LSAG report is also available.)

Thus, the conclusion that LHC collisions are

completely safe has been endorsed by the three respected
professional societies of physicists that have reviewed it,
which rank among the most highly respected professional
societies in the world.

World-renowned experts in astrophysics, cosmology,

general relativity, mathematics, particle physics and risk
analysis, including several Nobel Laureates in Physics,
have also expressed clear individual opinions that LHC
collisions are not dangerous:

Facts and figures:

The largest machine in the world...

The precise circumference of the LHC accelerator is

26 659 m, with a total of 9300 magnets inside. Not only is
the LHC the world’s largest particle accelerator, just one-
eighth of its cryogenic distribution system would qualify as
the world’s largest fridge. All the magnets will be
pre-cooled to -193.2°C (80 K) using 10 080 tonnes of
liquid nitrogen, before they are filled with nearly 60 tonnes
of liquid helium to bring them down to -271.3°C (1.9 K).

The fastest racetrack on the planet...

At full power, trillions of protons will race around the

LHC accelerator ring 11 245 times a second, travelling at
99.99% the speed of light. Two beams of protons will each
travel at a maximum energy of 7 TeV (tera-electronvolt),
corresponding to head-to-head collisions of 14 TeV.
Altogether some 600 million collisions will take place
every second.

The emptiest space in the Solar System...

 To avoid colliding with gas molecules inside the
accelerator, the beams of particles travel in an ultra-high
vacuum – a cavity as empty as interplanetary space. The
internal pressure of the LHC is 10-13 atm, ten times less
than the pressure on the Moon!

The hottest spots in the galaxy, but even colder

than outer space...

The LHC is a machine of extreme hot and cold. When

two beams of protons collide, they will generate
temperatures more than 100 000 times hotter than the heart
of the Sun, concentrated within a minuscule space. By
contrast, the 'cryogenic distribution system', which
circulates superfluid helium around the accelerator ring,
keeps the LHC at a super cool temperature of -271.3°C (1.9
K) – even colder than outer space!

The biggest and most sophisticated detectors ever

built...

To sample and record the results of up to 600 million

proton collisions per second, physicists and engineers have
built gargantuan devices that measure particles with micron
precision. The LHC's detectors have sophisticated
electronic trigger systems that precisely measure the
passage time of a particle to accuracies in the region of a
few billionths of a second. The trigger system also registers
the location of the particles to millionths of a metre. This
incredibly quick and precise response is essential for
ensuring that the particle recorded in successive layers of a
detector is one and the same.

The most powerful supercomputer system in the

world...

The data recorded by each of the big experiments at

the LHC will fill around 100 000 dual layer DVDs every
year. To allow the thousands of scientists scattered around
the globe to collaborate on the analysis over the next 15
years (the estimated lifetime of the LHC), tens of thousands
of computers located around the world are being harnessed
in a distributed computing network called the Grid.

LHC Milestones:

Journey to a new frontier

The LHC accelerator was originally conceived in the

1980s and approved for construction by the CERN Council
in late 1994. Turning this ambitious scientific plan into
reality proved to be an immensely complex task.

Civil engineering work to excavate underground

caverns to house the huge detectors for the experiments
started in 1998. Five years later, the last cubic metre of
ground was finally dug for the whole project.
 Numerous state-of-the-art technologies were pushed
even further to meet the accelerator's exacting
specifications and unprecedented demands.

Anticipating the colossal amount of data the LHC's

experiments would produce (nearly 1% of the world’s
information production rate), a new approach to data
storage, management, sharing and analysis was created in
the LHC Computing Grid project.

For more than a decade, building the LHC had been a

dream for many who have worked hard to bring it to
completion. Finally we can retell the story of this adventure
in a journey, from a dream to a reality…
References:

• Wikipedia
• www.scotland.gov.uk (Scotland govt. official
website)
• (http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/)LHC homepage
• CERN(European Organization for Nuclear
Research)
• The ALICE website (aliceinfo.cern.ch/Public/)
• The ATLAS website(http://atlas.ch/)
• (http://cmsinfo.cern.ch/outreach/)The CMS
public website
• http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-public/
• http://totem.web.cern.ch/Totem/