The history of the creation of the accelerator, which we know today as a large hadron collider, dates back to 2007. Initially, the accelerator chronology began with a cyclotron. The device was a small device that easily fit on a table. Then the history of accelerators began to develop rapidly. A synchrophasotron and a synchrotron appeared.
In history, perhaps the most entertaining was the period from 1956 to 1957. In those days, Soviet science, in particular physics, did not lag behind foreign brothers. Using the experience gained over the years, a Soviet physicist named Vladimir Veksler made a breakthrough in science. He created the most powerful synchrophasotron at that time. Its operating power was 10 gigaelectron-volts (10 billion electron-volts). After this discovery, serious accelerator samples were created: a large electron-positron collider, a Swiss accelerator, in Germany, the USA. All of them had one common goal - the study of the fundamental particles of quarks.
The Large Hadron Collider was created primarily due to the efforts of the Italian physicist. His name is Carlo Rubbia, Nobel laureate. During his career, Rubbia worked as a director at the European Organization for Nuclear Research. It was decided to build and launch the hadron collider exactly at the site of the research center.
Where is the hadron collider?
The collider is located on the border between Switzerland and France. Its circumference is 27 kilometers, which is why it is called large. The accelerator ring goes in depth from 50 to 175 meters. The collider has 1232 magnets. They are superconducting, which means that you can develop the maximum field for acceleration from them, since the energy costs in such magnets are practically absent. The total weight of each magnet is 3.5 tons with a length of 14.3 meters.
Like any physical object, a large hadron collider generates heat. Therefore, it must be constantly cooled. For this, a temperature of 1.7 K is maintained using 12 million liters of liquid nitrogen. In addition, liquid helium (700 thousand liters) is used for cooling, and most importantly, pressure is used, which is ten times lower than normal atmospheric pressure.
The temperature of 1.7 K on the Celsius scale is -271 degrees. This temperature is almost close to absolute zero. Absolute zero is the minimum possible limit that a physical body can have.
The inside of the tunnel is no less interesting. There are niobium-titanium cables with superconducting capabilities. Their length is 7600 kilometers. The total weight of the cables is 1200 tons. The inside of the cable is a plexus of 6300 wires with a total distance of 1.5 billion kilometers. This length is 10 astronomical units. For example, the distance from the earth to the sun is 10 such units.
If we talk about its geographical location, then we can say that the collider rings lie between the cities of Saint-Genis and Forneu-Voltaire, located on the French side, as well as Meirin and Vessurat - on the Swiss side. A small ring, called PS, runs along the border in diameter.
Meaning of existence
In order to answer the question "why do we need a hadron collider", you need to turn to scientists. Many scientists say that this is the greatest invention for the entire period of the existence of science, and that without it, science, which is known to us today, simply does not make sense. The existence and launch of the large hadron collider is interesting because an explosion occurs when particles collide in a hadron collider. All the smallest particles scatter in different directions. New particles form that can explain the existence and meaning of much.
The first thing scientists were trying to find in these crashed particles was the elementary particle theoretically predicted by physicist Peter Higgs, called the Higgs Boson. This amazing particle is a carrier of information, as it is believed. It is also commonly called the “particle of God." Its discovery would bring scientists closer to understanding the universe. It should be noted that in 2012, on July 4, the hadron collider (its launch was partially successful) helped to detect a similar particle. To date, scientists are trying to study it in more detail.
How long ...
Of course, the question immediately arises, why do scientists study these particles for so long. If there is a device, then you can run it, and each time to shoot more and more new data. The fact is that the work of the Hadron Collider is an expensive pleasure. One launch costs a lot. For example, the annual energy consumption is 800 million kW / h. This amount of energy is consumed by a city in which about 100 thousand people live, by average standards. And this is not counting the cost of maintenance. Another reason is that the hadron collider has an explosion that occurs when protons collide and is associated with obtaining a large amount of data: computers read so much information that it takes a lot of time to process. Even despite the fact that the power of computers that receive information is great even by today's standards.
The next reason is the equally well-known dark matter. Scientists working with the collider in this direction are confident that the visible spectrum of the entire universe is only 4%. The remaining ones are supposed to be dark matter and dark energy. They are experimentally trying to prove that this theory is true.
Hadron Collider: Pros or Cons
The advanced theory of dark matter has cast doubt on the safety of the hadron collider. The question arose: "Hadron Collider: for or against?" He worried many scientists. All the great minds of the world are divided into two categories. "Opponents" put forward an interesting theory that if such matter exists, then it must have a particle opposite to it. And when particles collide in the accelerator, the dark part arises. There was a risk that the dark part and the part that we see collide. Then this could lead to the death of the whole universe. However, after the first launch of the hadron collider, this theory was partially broken down.
Next in significance is the explosion of the universe, or rather birth. It is believed that in a collision you can observe how the universe behaved in the first seconds of existence. The way she looked after the origin of the Big Bang. It is believed that the process of collision of particles is very similar to that which was at the very beginning of the birth of the universe.
Another equally fantastic idea that scientists are testing is exotic models. It seems unbelievable, but there is a theory that suggests that there are other dimensions and universes with people like us. And oddly enough, the accelerator can help here.
Simply put, the purpose of the accelerator is to understand what the universe is, how it was created, to prove or refute all existing theories about particles and related phenomena. Of course, this will take years, but with each launch new discoveries appear that revolutionize the world of science.
Accelerator Facts
Everyone knows that the accelerator accelerates particles to 99% of the speed of light, but not many people know that the percentage is 99.9999991% of the speed of light. This stunning figure makes sense thanks to its perfect design and powerful acceleration magnets. Some lesser known facts should also be noted.
Numbers obtained during particle collisions and during acceleration| The number of protons in a bunch | up to 100 billion (1011) |
| The number of clots | up to 2808 |
The number of proton beams passing in the detector zone | up to 31 million per second, in 4 zones |
The number of particle collisions at the intersection | up to 20 |
| Data volume per collision | about 1.5 MB |
| Higgs particle count | 1 particle every 2.5 seconds (at full beam intensity and according to certain assumptions about the properties of Higgs particles) |
Approximately 100 million streams of data coming from each of the two main detectors can fill up more than 100 thousand CDs in a matter of seconds. In just one month, the number of disks would reach such a height that if they were stacked in the foot, it would be enough to the moon. Therefore, it was decided to collect not all the data that comes from the detectors, but only those that will allow the use of a data collection system, which in fact acts as a filter for the received data. It was decided to record only 100 events that occurred at the time of the explosion. These events will be recorded in the archive of the computing center of the Large Hadron Collider system, which is located in the European Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics, which in combination is the location of the accelerator. Not events that were recorded will be recorded, but those that are of the greatest interest to the scientific community.
Subsequent processing
After recording, hundreds of kilobytes of data will be processed. For this, more than two thousand computers located in CERN are used. The task of these computers is to process the primary data and form a database from them, which will be convenient for further analysis. Next, the generated data stream will be directed to the GRID computer network. This Internet network brings together thousands of computers that are located in different institutions around the world, connects more than a hundred large centers that are located on three continents. All such centers are connected to CERN using fiber optics - for maximum data transfer speed.
Speaking of facts, it is necessary to mention also the physical indicators of the structure. The accelerator tunnel is in a deviation of 1.4% from the horizontal plane. This is done primarily in order to place most of the accelerator tunnel in a monolithic rock. Thus, the depth of placement on opposite sides is different. If you count from the side of the lake, which is located near Geneva, the depth will be equal to 50 meters. The opposite part has a depth of 175 meters.
Interestingly, the lunar phases affect the accelerator. It would seem how such a distant object can act at such a distance. However, it is noticed that during the full moon, when the tide occurs, the earth in the Geneva region rises as much as 25 centimeters. This affects the length of the collider. The length thereby increases by 1 millimeter, and the beam energy also changes by 0.02%. Since the control of the beam energy must pass up to 0.002%, researchers must take this phenomenon into account.
It is also interesting that the collider tunnel has the shape of an octagon, not a circle, as many imagine. Corners are formed due to short sections. They have installed detectors, as well as a system that controls a beam of accelerating particles.
Structure
The Hadron Collider, the launch of which involves the use of many details and the excitement of scientists, is an amazing device. The entire accelerator consists of two rings. The small ring is called the Proton Synchrotron or, to use abbreviations, PS. The large ring is the Proton Supersynchrotron, or SPS. Together, two rings make it possible to disperse parts to 99.9% of the speed of light. At the same time, the collider increases the energy of protons, increasing their total energy by 16 times. It also allows particles to collide with each other for approximately 30 million times / s. within 10 hours. From 4 primary detectors, at least 100 terabytes of digital data per second are obtained. Data acquisition is determined by individual factors. For example, they can detect elementary particles that have a negative electric charge, and also have a half spin. Since these particles are unstable, their direct detection is impossible, it is possible to detect only their energy, which will fly out at a certain angle to the beam axis. This stage is called the first run level. This stage is monitored by more than 100 special data processing boards, in which implementation logic circuits are built. This part of the work is characterized by the fact that during the data acquisition period more than 100 thousand blocks with data are selected in one second. This data will then be used for analysis that occurs using a higher level mechanism.
Systems of the next level, on the contrary, receive information from all detector flows. The detector software is online. There it will use a large number of computers to process subsequent blocks of data, the average time between blocks is 10 microseconds. Programs will need to create particle marks, corresponding to the original points. The result is a formed data set consisting of momentum, energy, trajectory and others that arose during one event.
Accelerator Parts
The entire accelerator can be divided into 5 main parts:
1) The accelerator of the electron-positron collider. Detail, represents about 7 thousand magnets with superconducting properties. Using them, the beam is directed along the annular tunnel. And they also focus the bundle in one stream, the width of which will be reduced to the width of one hair.
2) Compact muon solenoid. This is a general purpose detector. Such a detector searches for new phenomena and, for example, searches for Higgs particles.
3) LHCb detector. The value of this device lies in the search for quarks and particles opposite to them - antiquarks.
4) Toroidal ATLAS installation. This detector is designed to fix muons.
5) Alice. This detector captures lead ion collisions and proton-proton collisions.
Problems Hadron Collider Launch
Despite the fact that the presence of high technology eliminates the possibility of errors, in practice, everything is different. During the assembly of the accelerator, delays and malfunctions occurred. I must say that such a situation was not unexpected. The device contains so many nuances and requires such accuracy that scientists expected similar results. For example, one of the problems that scientists faced during the launch was the failure of the magnet, which focused the proton beams just before their collision. This serious accident was caused by the destruction of part of the mount due to the loss of superconductivity by the magnet.
This problem arose in 2007. Because of it, the launch of the collider was postponed several times, and only in June the launch took place, after almost a year the collider still started.
The last launch of the collider was successful, many terabytes of data were collected.
The Hadron Collider, which was launched on April 5, 2015, is operating successfully. During the month, the beams will drive around the ring, gradually increasing power. There are no objectives for research as such. The collision energy of the beams will be increased. The value will be raised from 7 TeV to 13 TeV. Such an increase will allow us to see new opportunities in particle collisions.
In 2013 and 2014 Serious technical inspections of tunnels, accelerators, detectors and other equipment took place. The result was 18 bipolar magnets with a superconducting function. It should be noted that their total number is 1232 pieces. However, the remaining magnets did not go unnoticed. In the rest, the cooling protection systems were replaced, and improved ones were installed. Also improved the cooling system of magnets. This allows them to stay at low temperatures with maximum power.
If everything goes well, then the next launch of the accelerator will take place only after three years. Through this period, planned work is planned to improve, technical inspection of the collider.
It should be noted that repairs cost a penny, not considering the cost. The Hadron Collider, as of 2010, has a price of 7.5 billion euros. This figure puts the whole project in first place in the list of the most expensive projects in the history of science.
Last news
The Hadron Collider, which was launched after the break, was successful. Interesting data was collected. For example, evidence was presented that the current view of particles is correct. This is made possible by the correct operation of the CMS and LHCb detectors. These detectors caught the decay of BS into two mesons, which is direct evidence of the validity of modern theories.
It is worth asking the question of how the proof of such a theory occurs. One way is to capture new particles. That is, if new elementary particles appear during the collision, this means that the modern theory must be reconsidered.
The attention of scientists is focused on this particle only because it can prove, or at least open the door in the direction of supersymmetry. This is a good start for further study and work at the research center in Geneva.
What's next?
After the next modernization of the collider, the tasks will be set for the further study of particles. In particular, it will be necessary to learn more about the Higgs bosons. Despite the fact that the Nobel Prize was awarded for this discovery, not all of its properties have been fully studied and proved. Therefore, scientists have a long and difficult job to study this amazing particle.
In addition, it is necessary to continue work on the proof or refutation of the theory of supersymmetry. Although it seems somewhat fantastic, it has a right to exist. Do not think that all attention is paid only to the problem of the first importance, for each project there is a team of scientists who work in this area.
Of course, these are not all the tasks that scientists need to solve. With each new terabyte of information received, the list of questions is continuously updated, and answers to them can be searched for for years.