Contents

 What Is LHC ?
 Why The LHC ?
 Powering Of LHC
 Main Components Of LHC
 How Does LHC Works ?
 Are The LHC Collisions Dangerous ?
 Future Aspects
 Why Large ?
The size of an accelerator is related to the maximum energy obtainable. In the case of a collider or
storage ring, this is a function of the radius of the machine and the strength of the dipole magnetic
field that keeps particles in their orbits. The LHC re-uses the 27 ‑km circumference tunnel that was
built for the previous big accelerator, LEP. The LHC uses some of the most powerful dipoles and
radio-frequency cavities in existence. The size of the tunnel, magnets, cavities and other essential
elements of the machine, represent the main constraints that determine the design energy of 7 TeV
per proton beam.

Why Hadrons ?
The LHC will accelerate two beams of particles of the same kind, either protons or lead ions, which
are hadrons. An accelerator can only accelerate certain kinds of particle: firstly they need to be
charged (as the beams are manipulated by electromagnetic devices that can only influence charged
particles), and secondly, except in special cases, they need not to decay. This limits the number of
particles that can practically be accelerated to electrons, protons, and ions, plus all their antiparticles.

Why Collider ?
A Collider (that is a machine where counter-circulating beams collide) has a big advantage over other
kinds of accelerator where a beam collides with a stationary target. When two beams collide, the
energy of the collision is the sum of the energies of the two beams. A beam of the same energy that
hits a fixed target would produce a collision of much less energy.
 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?

 An invisible problem... : What is 96% of the universe made of?

 Nature's favoritism... : Why is there no more antimatter?

 Secrets of the Big Bang : What was matter like within the first
second of the Universe’s life?

 Hidden worlds… : Do extra dimensions of space really exist?

The Powering Strategy of LHC is based on :

 An electrical segmentation of the circuits into eight as dictated by the needs of the
quench protection system. This also reduces DC cabling, power consumption and
the size of the power converters while allowing sector to-sector correction of field and
field errors due to different magnet and cable manufacturers.

 The maximum use of existing infrastructure by using the LEP ac power distribution
and underground galleries in the even points, and limiting the current and therefore size
of the power converters in the odd points,

 The use of compact, high reliability switch-mode power converters for underground
installation,

 High precision control of the power converters using predictive and adaptive digital
control loops of 20 bit monotonic resolution aided by appropriate field and, eventually,
beam feedback
DISTRIBUTION OF AC POWER :

 In total, the LHC will have 1612 different

electrical circuits of superconducting and
normal conducting magnets. The total of 1612
electrical circuits is composed of 131 different
types, connecting main bending magnets,
magnets for beam focusing, dipole field
correctors, or higher order correctors.

 The total inductance of all 1232 dipole

magnets in LHC is 148 H which has a stored
energy of 11.6 GJ at the ultimate current of 12.5 The 600 A and 6 kA flexible,
kA.
superconducting bus-bar
 In all, there will be about 1500 power cables
converters having a total steady state input
power of 20 MW and a peak power of 51 MW.
They will supply a total current of about 1750
kA and are, in general, characterized by having
high current and low voltage.

 For the 1612 electrical circuits in the LHC a

total of 3286 current leads are needed to connect
the superconducting wires or cables to the power
supply cables.
 1. ATLAS ( A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS )
2. ALICE ( A Large Ion Collider Experiment )
3. CMS ( Compact Muon Solenoid )
4. TOTEM ( TOTal Elastic & diffractive cross section
Measurement experiment )
5. LHCb ( Large Hadron Collider Beauty )
6. LHCf ( Large Hadron Collider Forward )
ATLAS is a particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. ATLAS detector will search
for new discoveries in the head-on collisions of protons of extraordinarily high energy. ATLAS will
learn about the basic forces that have shaped our Universe since the beginning of time and that will
determine its fate. Among the possible unknowns are the origin of mass, extra dimensions of space,
microscopic black holes, and evidence for dark matter candidates in the Universe. 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. ATLAS is the largest-volume collider-detector ever constructed.
 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. 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.
 CMS stands for Compact Muon Solenoid: compact because it is “small” for its enormous weight,
Muon for one of the particles it detects, and solenoid for the coil inside its huge superconducting
magnets. CMS is designed to see a wide range of particles and phenomena produced in high-energy
collisions in the LHC. Like a cylindrical onion, different layers of detector stop and measure the
different particles, and use this key data to build up a picture of events at the heart of the collision.
The LHC smashes groups of protons together at close to the speed of light: 40 million times per
second and with seven times the energy of the most powerful accelerators built up to now. Many of
these will just be glancing blows but some will be head on collisions and very energetic. When this
happens some of the energy of the collision is turned into mass and previously unobserved, short-lived
particles – which could give clues about how Nature behaves at a fundamental level - fly out and into
the detector.
TOTEM's physics program is dedicated to the precise measurement of the proton-proton interaction
cross section, as well as to the in-depth study of the proton structure which is still poorly understood.
The study of the physics processes in the region very close to the particles beam (forward region) is
complementary to the programs of the LHC general-purpose experiments and requires appropriate
detectors. That's why, the TOTEM collaboration had to invest heavily in the design of sophisticated
detectors characterized by a high acceptance for particles produced in that very busy region. All the
detectors of the experimental apparatus will detect charged particles emitted by the proton-proton
collisions in the IP5 interaction point and will have trigger capabilities that will allow an online
selection of specific events.
 LHCb specializes in the study of the slight asymmetry between matter and antimatter present in
interactions of B-particles (particles containing the b quark). Understanding it should prove invaluable
in answering the question: “Why is our Universe made of the matter we observe?” 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 built around the collision
point, the next ones stand one behind the other, over a length of 20 m. The aim of the LHCb experiment
is to record the decay of particles containing b and anti-b quarks, collectively known as ‘B mesons’. The
experiment’s 4,500 tones detector is specifically designed to filter out these particles and the products of
their decay. Rather than flying out in all directions, B mesons formed by the colliding proton beams
(and the particles they decay into) stay close to the line of the beam pipe, and this is reflected in the
design of the detector.
 LHCf is a small experiment that will measure particles produced very close to the direction of the
beams in the proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The motivation is to test models used to estimate
the primary energy of the ultra high-energy cosmic rays. It will have detectors 140 m from the
ATLAS collision point. 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 kilometers.
  AD – The Antiproton Decelerator
The Antiproton Decelerator is a unique machine
providing low-energy antiprotons for studies of
antimatter, in particular for creating anti-atoms. The job
of the AD is to tame the unruly particles into a useful, low-
energy beam.
 CLIC – Compact Linear Collider
The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) study aims at a
center-of-mass energy range for electron-positron collisions
of 0.5 to 5 TeV, optimised for a nominal center-of-mass
energy of 3 TeV (3 TeV CLIC).

 ISOLDE – Isotope Separator On-Line

ISOLDE (On-Line Isotope Mass Separator) is a unique
source of low-energy beams of radioactive isotopes -
atomic nuclei that have too many or two few neutrons to
be stable. ISOLDE directs a beam of protons from the
Proton Synchrotron onto special targets, yielding a wide
variety of atomic fragments.
  CNGS – CERN neutrinos to Gran
Sasso
The CNGS (CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso)
project aims at investigating the ‘
oscillation of neutrinos’ . The CNGS facility
aims at directly detecting such neutrino
oscillations and confirming this fascinating
hypothesis with artificially produced neutrinos
from an accelerator.

 nTOF – The neutron facility

nTOF, is a neutron source that has been

operating. It is a unique facility in which
neutrons are produced in a wide range of
energies and in very intense beams. This allows
precise measurements of neutron related
processes that are relevant for several fields.
  PS – The Proton Synchrotron
The Proton Synchrotron (PS) is a key component in
LHC, where it accelerates protons delivered by the
PS Booster or heavy ions from the Low Energy Ion
Ring. With a circumference of 628 m, the PS has
277 conventional electromagnets, including 100
dipoles to bend the beams round the ring, and it
operates at up to 25 GeV.

 SPS – the Super Proton Synchrotron

The Super Proton Synchrotron is the second
largest machine in CERN’s accelerator complex.
Measuring nearly 7 km in circumference, it takes
particles from the PS and accelerates them to
provide beams for the Large Hadron Collider, the
COMPASS experiment and the CNGS project.
The SPS has 1317 conventional (room
temperature) electromagnets, including 744
dipoles to bend the beams round the ring, and it
operates at up to 450 GeV. It has handled many
different kinds of particles – sulphur and oxygen
nuclei, electrons, positrons, protons and
antiprotons.
LET US WATCH A VIDEO !
The LHC can achieve energies that no other particle accelerators have reached before. The
energy of its particle collisions has previously only been found in Nature. And it is only by
using such a powerful machine that physicists can probe deeper into the key mysteries of
the Universe. Some people have expressed concerns about the safety of whatever may be
created in high-energy particle collisions.

Some Threats regarding LHC are

Unprecedented energy collisions
Mini big bangs
Black Holes
Strangelets
Radiation
When the 27-km long circular tunnel was excavated, between Lake Geneva and the Jura
mountain range, the two ends met up to within 1 cm.

 Each of the 6000-9000 superconducting filaments of niobium–titanium

in the cable produced for the LHC is about 0.007 mm thick, about 10 times
thinner than a normal human hair. If you added all the filaments together
they would stretch to the Sun and back six times with enough left over for
about 150 trips to the Moon.

 All protons accelerated at CERN are obtained from standard hydrogen.

Although proton beams at the LHC are very intense, only 2 nanograms of
hydrogen*) are accelerated each day. Therefore, it would take the LHC
about 1 million years to accelerate 1 gram of hydrogen.

 The central part of the LHC will be the world’s largest fridge. At a
temperature colder than deep outer space, it will contain iron, steel and the
all important superconducting coils.

 The pressure in the beam pipes of the LHC will be about ten times lower
than on the Moon. This is an ultrahigh vacuum.
Protons at full energy in the LHC will be traveling at 0.999999991 times the speed of light.
Each proton will go round the 27 km ring more than 11 000 times a second.

At full energy, each of the two proton beams in the LHC will have a total
energy equivalent to a car traveling at a speed of 1500-1600 km/hr. This is
enough energy to melt 500 kg of copper.

 The Sun never sets on the ATLAS collaboration. Scientists working on

the experiment come from every continent in the world, except Antarctica.

The CMS magnet system contains about 10 000 t of iron, which is more
iron than in the Eiffel Tower.

The data recorded by each of the big experiments at the LHC will be enough to fill around
100 000 dual layer single-sided DVDs every year.