I was doing a physics project on the LHC and here is a basic idea of this whole collider thing:
The Large Hadron Collider ( LHC) that the physicists built in
Europe, part in France and part in Switzerland, is one of the most exquisite
equipment ever built. The LHC is a 27-km long machine that took ten years and
$11 billion ( about Rs 49,500 crore) to build. It smashes protons together. One
aim of this experiment is to test some theories developed in the past decade or
two. The other aim, not totally separate from the first one, is to see what
went on in the universe when it originated. The data produced due to the
collisions will be very large (15 petabytes every year). It is so large that physicists
had to build another grand network of computers to do the analysis. While the
physics that come out of the experiment can take years to find utility, the LHC
computer network is already being used. In fact, this network could make
climate change research easy.
The Large Hadron Collider ( LHC) that the physicists built in Europe, part in France and part in Switzerland, is one of the most exquisite equipment ever built. The LHC is a 27-km long machine that took ten years and $11 billion ( about Rs 49,500 crore) to build. It smashes protons together. One aim of this experiment is to test some theories developed in the past decade or two. The other aim, not totally separate from the first one, is to see what went on in the universe when it originated. The data produced due to the collisions will be very large (15 petabytes every year). It is so large that physicists had to build another grand network of computers to do the analysis. While the physics that come out of the experiment can take years to find utility, the LHC computer network is already being used. In fact, this network could make climate change research easy. The precise circumference of the LHC accelerator is 26,659metre with a total of 9,300 magnets inside. At full power, trillions of protons will race around the LHC ring 11,245 times a second, travelling at 99.99 percent the speed of light. When two beams of proton collide, they generate temperatures 100,000 times hotter than the heart of the sun. By contrast, the ‘cryogenic distribution system’, which circulates super fluid helium around the accelerator ring, keeps the LHC at a super cool temperature of -271.3oC. Also, the data recorded by each of the big experiments at the LHC will fill about 100,000 dual layer DVDs every year. The LHC is expected to address some of the unsolved questions of physics, advancing human understanding of physical laws. It contains seven 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 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 helium leak caused some setback. On November 20, 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 March 30, 2010, the first collisions took place between two 3.5 TeV beams, setting a world record for the highest- energy man made particle collisions, and the LHC began its planned research programme.
The
precise circumference of the LHC accelerator is 26,659metre with a total of
9,300 magnets inside. At full power, trillions of protons will race around the
LHC ring 11,245 times a second, travelling at 99.99 percent the speed of light.
When two beams of proton collide, they generate temperatures 100,000 times
hotter than the heart of the sun. By contrast, the ‘cryogenic distribution
system’, which circulates super fluid helium around the accelerator ring, keeps
the LHC at a super cool temperature of -271.3oC. Also, the data
recorded by each of the big experiments at the LHC will fill about 100,000 dual
layer DVDs every year. The LHC is expected to address some of the unsolved
questions of physics, advancing human understanding of physical laws. It
contains seven 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
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 helium leak
caused some setback. On November 20, 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 March 30, 2010, the
first collisions took place between two 3.5 TeV beams, setting a world record
for the highest- energy man made particle collisions, and the LHC began its
planned research programme. If you are interested you can visit: http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/large-hadron-collider.
