The largest collider in the world. Large Hadron Collider (LHC or LHC)

The head of the high-energy physics sector of the Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after P.N. Lebedeva, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Igor Dremin:

First, I want to immediately assure the readers: there is no need to be afraid of a future experiment.

I travel twice each year to the site of future testing, but as a theorist, not a research developer. Building a collider is both an engineering and a scientific problem. Experimenters are preparing for work, who will process the incoming information, accumulate it and display it in the form of tables, graphs, and so on. My role is the role of a theoretician - with the help of theory, to understand these experimental data, interpret them, and also propose new physical methods research.

- The phrase "Large Hadron Collider" in connection with the hype around the experiment was not memorized only by the lazy. However, few people understand what it really is.

This is an accelerator that stands in the tunnel. The tunnel is 27 km long, that is, it is longer than the Moscow metro ring line (19.4 km). This is a unique engineering structure: the length of the cables used in the tunnel is sufficient to stretch them from the Earth to the Sun several dozen times. The structure is located at a depth of 15 to 120 meters. She has very strong magnetic fields: a huge number of superconducting magnets that accelerate particles. They work under extreme conditions - the temperature in the tunnel is close to absolute zero: 1.8 degrees Kelvin (- 271.2 degrees Celsius).

- Where is the tunnel?

The collider is located at CERN, it is the European Center for Nuclear Research in Geneva. This accelerator stands in such a way that part of it is located in France, part of its ring passes through Switzerland. We can say that the beam will cross the borders without visas all the time. Many many times. (Laughs)

- What is the principle of the collider?

“The Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful charged particle accelerator ever created in the world. Its principle of operation is as follows: colliding beams of protons or nuclei collide with each other, and the collision energy is the highest of all that have now been achieved at accelerators. This energy is measured in electron volts and amounts to 14 trillion electron volts.

In fact, this energy is not that great. If you translate it into more well-known calories, then this is only half of a millionth of a calorie. If we give an everyday example, then in fact this energy is equal to that which is released when two mosquitoes collide, that is, it is scanty energy, but since it is released in a very small volume - inside the volume of a proton or inside the volume of an elementary particle - the density of this energy is high.

When two protons or two nuclei collide, for example, two nuclei of lead atoms, then energy is released in the form of newly born particles. It can be several thousand or even tens of thousands of newly born particles.

- Tell us about the main objectives of the experiment.

The main task of the experiment is to understand the structure of space at short distances and at short times. On this ring-tunnel there are four huge detectors, which will study these particle beams.

The size of these detectors can be imagined if we say that the height of the detector is about an eight-story building. Its length is also enormous. Scientists will deal with various issues of the interaction of hadrons, nucleons, protons and nuclei.

The whole experiment is aimed at understanding what is the structure of matter, or the structure of protons, the structure of nuclei, but on a very small scale - at distances of the order of 10 -12 centimeters, when the components of the proton, quarks and gluons, are already playing a role. Thus, we plan to obtain information about the structure of our space.

New dimensions

It is assumed that our space may have, for example, an additional dimension. Four dimensions are now known - three-dimensional space plus time. But there may be both the fifth and sixth dimensions, which are so small that we are in them ordinary life we do not notice. In the course of the experiment, we hope to obtain proof of the existence of extra dimensions.

Boson hicks

Most interest Ask from a physical point of view, it is a question of identifying the Hicks boson. The Hicks boson is a hypothetical particle that has not yet been observed. In theory, it is responsible for the appearance of masses for all other particles. If such a boson is found, then we will understand the nature of the appearance of mass in particles, we will understand why the electron is so light, and the proton is 2000 times heavier, and how atoms are formed in connection with this. This is a fundamental question about the nature of force, about the nature of interactions.

Black holes

The most exciting topic of discussion is the question of the possibility of the birth of black holes. Black hole- this is such a formation when a strong gravitational field attracts everything and does not release anything outside. Why is it now argued that black holes that can be born at the Large Hadron Collider are safe? Let's draw an analogy with the impact of cosmic rays, the energy of which even exceeds that which we now get at the hadron collider. These cosmic rays have been falling on Earth for 5 billion years. And on other objects, such as white dwarfs or neutron stars, which are much more massive and formed earlier than the Earth, they fall much longer - and no special processes occur. In addition, if, nevertheless, black holes will form at the collider (I emphasize that this is unlikely), they will decay in a negligible time: 10 -100 seconds. Let me remind you that Kolmogorov once said that there is no such number - "10 -100", but there is only zero.

In addition, quantum mechanical radiation, which is called Hawking radiation, can and should arise from black holes. From this they will also disintegrate. In general, the formation of any stable black holes will be practically impossible, and they do not pose any danger.

Unknown

In addition to these black holes, the possibility of the birth of other objects that have not yet been discovered is being discussed. Naturally, research at the Hadron Collider will be carried out not only in connection with finding something just predicted or something that is already theoretically understandable: scientists hope that there will be some completely unexpected discoveries in this new area energy.

- What day is the launch of the collider scheduled?

The collider was going to be tested in May-July, but so far its launch was postponed, apparently, until September. This is due to the fact that the structure is fundamental, it uses new technical solutions, and, of course, there are a lot of difficulties in creating such an accelerator, since nothing of the kind has yet been done in the world.

- Do our scientists take part in the experiment?

In the construction, which lasted more than ten years, the efforts of all countries were united. The project was directly attended by, including our, Russian scientists, who invested a lot of effort in the creation of detectors and in the formulation of those physical problems that need to be dealt with when studying hadron collisions. Now the detectors have been lowered underground, assembled and will be tested in the near future. Of course, those who collected them will follow their work.

In addition, more important question: this is already physical research and processing of experimental results. There is a shift in emphasis from purely technical problems towards the physical results of these experiments.

There has been a lot of discussion about the safety of LHC accelerators. Many ordinary people panicked, they say that the end of the world will come with the launch of the accelerator. How can you comment on this?

Created in 2003, a special commission in the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) wrote a report that the installation is completely safe. But in connection with the newly appeared rumors and the excitement associated with the possible nucleation of black holes at this collider, the issue of safety was revised again. The conclusions of the commission were confirmed and strengthened.

P.S

In the Moscow region, bloggers have discovered a mysterious structure. Independent experts claim that this is our answer to CERN for the creation of the Large Hadron Collider. His photograph went around the world ...

The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is the most famous accelerator in the world. This was greatly facilitated by the hype raised by the world community and journalists around the danger of this scientific project... Many believe that this is the only collider in the world, but this is far from the case. In addition to the Tevatron closed in the United States, there are currently five working colliders in the world.

In America, at the Brookhaven Laboratory, the RKTI (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) accelerator, which began work in 2000, is operating. It took an investment of $ 2 billion to put it into operation. In addition to purely theoretical experiments, physicists working at RHIC are developing quite practical projects. Among them:

• a device for diagnosing and treating cancer (directed accelerated protons are used);
• the use of heavy ion beams to create filters at the molecular level;
• development of more and more efficient devices for energy storage, which opens up new perspectives in the use of solar energy.

A similar heavy ion accelerator is being built in Dubna, Russia. At this NICA collider, Russian physicists intend to study quark-gluon plasma.

Now Russian scientists are conducting research at the INP, where two colliders are located at once - VEPP-4M and VEPP-2000. Their budget is $ 0.19 billion for the former and $ 0.1 billion for the latter. The first tests at VEPP-4M began in 1994. Here, a technique has been developed for measuring the mass of the observed elementary particles with the highest accuracy in the whole world. In addition, INP is the only institute in the world that earns money for basic research in physics on their own... Scientists of this institute develop and sell equipment for accelerators to other states that want to have their own experimental facilities, but do not have such developments.

In 1999, the Daphne collider was launched in the Frascatti laboratory (Italy), its cost was approximately $ 1/5 billion, and the maximum power was 0.51 TeV. It was one of the first high-energy accelerators; with the help of just one experiment, more than one hundred thousand hyperions (atomic particles) were obtained on it. For this, Daphne was dubbed a particle factory or f-factory.

Two years before the launch of the LHC, in 2006, China launched its own collider VERS II, with a capacity of 2.5 TeV. The cost of this construction was at an all-time low at $ 0.08 billion. But for the budget of this developing country, such a sum was considerable; the Chinese government allocated these funds, realizing that the development of modern industry is impossible without the development of fundamental branches of science. It is all the more urgent to invest in this area of ​​experimental physics in the light of the depletion natural resources and the increasing demand for energy.

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The Large Hadron Collider is called either the "machine Doomsday”, Or the key to the secret of the Universe, but its significance is not in doubt.

As the famous British thinker Bertrand Russell once said: "is what you know, philosophy is what you do not know." It would seem that is true scientific knowledge long ago separated from its origins, which can be found in philosophical research Ancient Greece, but it is not so.

Throughout the twentieth century, scientists have tried to find in science the answer to the question of the structure of the world. This process was similar to the search for the meaning of life: a huge variety of theories, assumptions and even crazy ideas. What conclusions did scientists come to at the beginning of the XXI century?

The whole world consists of elementary particles, which represent the final forms of everything that exists, that is, that which cannot be split into smaller elements. These include protons, electrons, neutrons, and so on. These particles are in constant interaction with each other. At the beginning of our century, it was expressed in 4 fundamental types: gravitational, electromagnetic, strong and weak. The first is described by General Relativity, the other three are combined in the Standard Model (quantum theory). It was also suggested that there is another interaction, later called the Higgs field.

Gradually, the idea of ​​combining all fundamental interactions within the framework of “ theory of everything ", which was initially perceived as a joke, but quickly grew into a powerful scientific direction... Why is this needed? It's that simple! Without understanding how the world functions, we are like ants in an artificial nest - we will not get beyond our capabilities. Human knowledge cannot (well, or bye cannot, if you are an optimist) to cover the structure of the world as a whole.

One of the most famous theories claiming to "embrace everything" is string theory... It implies that the entire Universe and our life with you is multidimensional. Despite the developed theoretical part and the support of famous physicists such as Brian Green and Stephen Hawking, it has no experimental confirmation.

Scientists, decades later, got tired of broadcasting from the stands and decided to build something that once and for all should dot the i's. For this, the world's largest experimental setup was created - Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

"To the collider!"

What is a collider? Scientifically speaking, this is a charged particle accelerator designed to accelerate elementary particles for further understanding of their interaction. In unscientific terms, this is a large arena (or sandbox, if you like) in which scientists fight to validate their theories.

For the first time the idea to knock elementary particles and see what will happen, appeared in the American physicist Donald William Kerst (Donald William Kerst) in 1956. He suggested that thanks to this, scientists will be able to penetrate the secrets of the universe. It would seem, what is wrong with colliding between two beams of protons with a total energy of a million times more than from thermonuclear fusion? The times were appropriate: the cold war, the arms race and all that.

The history of the creation of the LHC

The idea of ​​creating an accelerator for producing and studying charged particles appeared in the early 1920s, but the first prototypes were created only by the early 1930s. Initially, they were high-voltage linear accelerators, that is, charged particles moved in a straight line. The ring version was presented in the USA in 1931, after which similar devices began to appear in a number of developed countries - Great Britain, Switzerland, and the USSR. They got the name cyclotrons, and later began to be actively used to create nuclear weapons.

It should be noted that the cost of building a particle accelerator is incredibly high. Europe that played during cold war not a primary role, entrusted its creation European Organization for Nuclear Research (in Russian it is often read as CERN), which later took up the construction of the LHC.

CERN was created in the wake of international concern about nuclear research in the United States and the USSR, which could lead to total extermination. Therefore, scientists decided to combine efforts and direct them to a peaceful channel. In 1954, CERN received its official birth.

In 1983, under the auspices of CERN, the W and Z bosons were discovered, after which the question of the discovery of the Higgs bosons became only a matter of time. In the same year, work began on the construction of the Large Electron-Positron Collider (BEPC), which played a primary role in the study of the discovered bosons. However, even then it became clear that the power of the created device would soon be insufficient. And in 1984, it was decided to build the LHC, immediately after the BEPK was dismantled. This happened in 2000.

The construction of the LHC, which began in 2001, was facilitated by the fact that it took place on the site of the former BEPK, in the valley of Lake Geneva. In connection with financing issues (in 1995, the cost was estimated at 2.6 billion Swiss francs, by 2001 it exceeded 4.6 billion, in 2009 it was $ 6 billion).

At the moment, the LHC is located in a tunnel with a circumference of 26.7 km and passes through the territory of two European countries- France and Switzerland. The depth of the tunnel varies from 50 to 175 meters. It should also be noted that the collision energy of protons in the accelerator reaches 14 teraelectronvolts, which is 20 times more than the results achieved using BEPC.

"Curiosity is not a vice, but a big disgusting thing."

The 27-kilometer-long CERN collider tunnel is located 100 meters underground near Geneva. There will be huge superconducting electromagnets here. Transport cars on the right. Juhanson / wikipedia.org (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Why is this man-made "Doomsday machine" needed? Scientists expect to see the world as it was immediately after the Big Bang, that is, at the time of the formation of matter.

Goals, which scientists set themselves during the construction of the LHC:

1. Confirmation or refutation of the Standard Model with the aim of further creating a "theory of everything".
2. Proof of the existence of the Higgs boson as a particle of the fifth fundamental interaction. She, according to theoretical studies, should affect the electrical and weak interactions, breaking their symmetry.
3. Study of quarks, which are a fundamental particle that is 20 thousand times smaller than protons consisting of them.
4. Obtaining and researching dark matter, which makes up most of the Universe.

These are far from the only goals assigned by scientists to the LHC, but the rest are more related to related or purely theoretical ones.

What have you achieved?

Undoubtedly the largest and most significant achievement was the official confirmation of the existence of Higgs boson... The discovery of the fifth interaction (the Higgs field), which, according to scientists, affects the acquisition of mass by all elementary particles. It is believed that when symmetry is broken when the Higgs field is applied to other fields, the W and Z bosons become massive. The discovery of the Higgs boson is so great in its significance that a number of scientists gave them the name "divine particles".

Quarks combine into particles (protons, neutrons and others), which are called hadrons... It is they who accelerate and collide in the LHC, which is where its name comes from. During the operation of the collider, it was proved that it is simply impossible to separate a quark from a hadron. If you try to do this, you will simply rip out from, for example, a proton, another kind of elementary particle - meson... Despite the fact that this is only one of the hadrons and does not carry anything new in itself, further study of the interaction of quarks should be carried out precisely in small steps. In researching the fundamental laws of the functioning of the universe, haste is dangerous.

Although the quarks themselves were not discovered during the use of the LHC, their existence up to a certain point was perceived as a mathematical abstraction. The first such particles were found in 1968, but it was only in 1995 that the existence of a "true quark" was officially proved. The results of the experiments are confirmed by the ability to reproduce them. Therefore, the LHC's achievement of a similar result is perceived not as a repetition, but as a reinforcing proof of their existence! Although the problem with the reality of quarks has not disappeared anywhere, because they are simply cannot be singled out from hadrons.

What are the plans?

The main task of creating a "theory of everything" was not solved, but the theoretical study possible options its manifestation is underway. Until now, one of the problems of unification General theory relativity and the Standard Model remains different area their actions, and therefore the second does not take into account the peculiarities of the first. Therefore, it is important to go beyond the Standard Model and reach the edge. New physics.

Supersymmetry - scientists believe that it connects the bosonic and fermionic quantum fields, so much so that they can turn into each other. It is such a conversion that goes beyond the scope of the Standard Model, since there is a theory that the symmetric mapping of quantum fields is based on gravitons... They, accordingly, can be an elementary particle of gravity.

Boson Madala- the hypothesis of the existence of the Madala boson suggests that there is another field. Only if the Higgs boson interacts with known particles and matter, then the Madala boson interacts with dark matter... Despite the fact that it occupies a large part of the universe, its existence does not fall within the scope of the Standard Model.

Microscopic black hole - one of the LHC's studies is to create a black hole. Yes, yes, exactly that black, all-consuming area in outer space. Fortunately, no significant achievements have been made in this direction.

Today, the Large Hadron Collider is a multipurpose research center, on the basis of which theories are created and experimentally confirmed that will help us better understand the structure of the world. There are often waves of criticism surrounding a number of ongoing studies that are branded as dangerous, including from Stephen Hawking, but the game is definitely worth the candle. We will not be able to sail in the black ocean called the Universe with a captain who has no maps, no compass, no basic knowledge of the world around us.

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There are many rumors about this mysterious device, many argue that it will destroy the Earth, creating an artificial black hole and ending the existence of mankind. In reality, this device can lead humanity to a completely new level, thanks to research carried out by scientists. In this thread, I tried to collect all necessary information to give you an impression of what the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is

So, this thread has collected everything you need to know about the Hadron Collider. March 30, 2010 at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) occurred historical event- after several unsuccessful attempts and many upgrades, the creation of the world's largest machine for the destruction of atoms was completed. Preliminary tests initiating collisions of protons at a relatively low speed were carried out during 2009 with no significant problems. The ground was set for an extraordinary experiment to be held in the spring of 2010. The basic experimental model of the LHC is based on the collision of two proton beams that collide at maximum speed. This powerful collision destroys protons, creating extraordinary energies and new elementary particles. These new atomic particles are extremely fickle and can only exist for a fraction of a second. The analytical apparatus, which is part of the LHC, can record these events and analyze them in detail. Thus, scientists are trying to simulate the appearance of black holes.

On March 30, 2010, two beams of protons were launched into the LHC's 27 km tunnel in opposite directions. They were accelerated to the speed of light at which the collision occurred. A record-breaking energy of 7 TeV (7 teraelectronvolts) was recorded. The value of this energy is record-breaking and has very important values. Now let's get acquainted with the most important components of the LHC - sensors and detectors, which register what is happening in fractions in those fractions of seconds during which a collision of proton beams occurs. There are three sensors playing central roles during the March 30, 2010 collision — some of the most important parts of the collider, playing a key role during CERN's challenging experiments. The diagram shows the location of the four main experiments (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb), which are the key projects of the LHC. At a depth of 50 to 150 meters underground, huge caves have been dug specifically for giant sensor detectors.

Let's start with a project called ALICE (short for Large Ion Experimental Collider). This is one of six experimental installations built at the LHC. ALICE is tuned to investigate heavy ion collisions. The temperature and energy density of the nuclear matter formed in this process is sufficient for the production of gluon plasma. The photo shows the ALICE detector and all its 18 modules


Internal system Tracking (ITS) in ALICE consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon sensors that surround the collision point and measure the properties and precise positions of the emerging particles. Thus, particles containing a heavy quark can be easily detected.

ATLAS is also one of the main experiments of the LHC. The experiment is carried out on a special detector designed to study collisions between protons. ATLAS is 44 meters long, 25 meters in diameter and weighs approximately 7,000 tons. In the center of the tunnel, beams of protons collide, the largest and most complex sensor of its kind ever built. The sensor records everything that happens during and after the collision of protons. The goal of the project is to detect particles previously unrecorded and unrecognized in our universe.

Opening and confirmation Higgs Boson- the most important priority of the Large Hadron Collider, because this discovery would confirm the Standard Model of the origin of elementary atomic particles and standard matter. During the launch of the collider on full power the integrity of the Standard Model will be destroyed. Elementary particles, the properties of which we understand only partially, will not be able to maintain their structural integrity. The Standard Model has an upper energy limit of 1 TeV, at an increase in which the particle decays. At an energy of 7 TeV, particles with masses ten times greater than those currently known could be created. True, they will be very unstable, but ATLAS is designed to detect them in those fractions of a second before they "disappear"

This photo is considered to be the best of all LHC photographs:

Compact muon solenoid ( Compact muon solenoid) is one of two huge universal particle detectors at the LHC. About 3,600 scientists from 183 laboratories and universities in 38 countries support the work of CMS, which built and operates this detector. The solenoid is located underground in Cessie in France, near the border with Switzerland. The diagram shows the CMS device, which we will talk about in more detail.

Most the inner layer is a silicon based tracker. The tracker is the world's largest silicon sensor. It has 205 m2 of silicon sensors (approximately a tennis court area) comprising 76 million channels. The tracker allows you to measure traces of charged particles in an electromagnetic field

The second level contains the Electromagnetic Calorimeter. The Hadron Calorimeter, at the next level, measures the energy of the individual hadrons produced in each case

The LHC's next CMS layer is a huge magnet. The Large Solenoid Magnet is 13 meters long and 6 meters in diameter. It consists of cooled coils made of niobium and titanium. This huge solenoid magnet works at full strength to maximize particle lifetime

Layer 5 - muon detectors and return yoke. The CMS is designed to investigate the different types of physics that might be found in energetic LHC collisions. Some of this research is about confirming or improving measurements of the parameters of the Standard Model, while many others are looking for new physics.

Very little information is available about the experiment on March 30, 2010, but one fact is known for sure. CERN reported that an unprecedented burst of energy was recorded from the third launch attempt of the collider, when beams of protons raced around a 27-kilometer tunnel and then collided at the speed of light. The record energy level recorded has been recorded at the maximum it can deliver in its current configuration - approximately 7 TeV. It was this amount of energy that was characteristic of the first seconds of the start of the Big Bang, which gave rise to the existence of our universe. Initially, this energy level was not expected, but the result exceeded all expectations.

The diagram shows how ALICE records a record 7 TeV energy surge:

This experiment will be repeated hundreds of times throughout 2010. To make you understand how complicated this process is, you can draw an analogy to the acceleration of particles in a collider. In terms of complexity, this is equivalent to, for example, a shot with needles from the island of Newfoundland with such perfect accuracy that these needles collide somewhere in the Atlantic, flying around the entire Earth... The main goal is the detection of an elementary particle - the Higgs boson, which underlies the Standard Model of the construction of the universe

With a successful outcome of all these experiments, the world of the heaviest particles at 400 GeV (the so-called Dark Matter) can finally be discovered and explored.

A few years ago, I had no idea what hadron colliders, the Higgs Boson were, and why thousands of scientists around the world are working on a huge physics campus on the border of Switzerland and France, burying billions of dollars in the ground.
Then, for me, like many other inhabitants of the planet, the expression of the Large Hadron Collider became familiar, the knowledge about elementary particles colliding in it at the speed of light and about one of greatest discoveries the last time - the Higgs Boson.

And so, in mid-June, I had the opportunity to see with my own eyes what they talk about so much and what so many conflicting rumors are wandering about.
It was not just a short excursion, but a full day spent in the world's largest nuclear physics laboratory - Cerne. Here we managed to talk with the physicists themselves, and see a lot of interesting things in this scientific campus, go down to the holy of holies - the Large Hadron Collider (and after all, when it is launched and tests are carried out in it, any access from the outside to it is impossible) , visit the plant for the production of giant magnets for the collider, in the Atlas center, where scientists analyze the data obtained in the collider, secretly visit the newest linear collider under construction and even, almost like in a quest, practically walk along the thorny path of an elementary particle from the end to the beginning. And see where it all starts ...
But about all this in separate posts. Today, just the Large Hadron Collider.
If you can call it just my brain refuses to understand HOW this could first be invented and then built.

2. Many years ago this picture became world famous. Many believe that this is the sectional Large Hadron. In fact, this is a cross-section of one of the largest detectors - the CMS. Its diameter is about 15 meters. This is not the largest detector. The Atlas diameter is about 22 meters.

3. To roughly understand what it is and how big the collider is, let's look at a satellite map.
This is a suburb of Geneva, not far from Lake Geneva. It is here that the huge CERN campus is based, which I will talk about separately a little later, and a bunch of colliders are located underground at various depths. Yes Yes. He's not alone. There are a dozen of them. The Big Hadron simply crowns this structure, figuratively speaking, completing the chain of colliders along which elementary particles are accelerated. I will also talk about this separately, going along with the particle from Large (LHC) to the very first, linear Linac.
The diameter of the LHC ring is almost 27 kilometers and it lies at a depth of just over 100 meters (the largest ring in the picture).
The LHC has four detectors - Alice, Atlas, LHCb and CMS. We walked down to the CMS detector.

4. In addition to these four detectors, the rest of the space underground is a tunnel in which there is an uninterrupted gut of these blue segments. They are magnets. Giant magnets, in which a crazy magnetic field is created, in which elementary particles move at the speed of light.
There are 1734 of them in total.

5. Inside the magnet is just such a complex structure. There is a lot of everything here, but the most important thing is two hollow tubes inside, in which proton beams fly.
In four places (in the same detectors), these tubes intersect and the proton beams collide. In those places where they collide, the protons are scattered into various particles, which is recorded by the detectors.
This is to say, in short, what kind of nonsense it is and how it works.

6. So, June 14, morning, CERN. We come to an inconspicuous fence with a gate and a small building on the territory.
This is the entrance to one of the four detectors of the Large Hadron Collider - CMS.
Here I want to stop a little to talk about how we managed to get here at all and thanks to whom.
And all the "fault" is Andrei, our man who works at CERN, and thanks to whom our visit was not some short boring excursion, but incredibly interesting and filled with a huge amount of information.
Andrey (he is wearing a green T-shirt) is never against guests and is always happy to contribute to a visit to this Mecca of nuclear physics.
Do you know what's interesting? This is the access control at the Collider and at CERN in general.
Yes, everything is on a magnetic card, but ... an employee with his pass has access to 95% of the territory and objects.
And only those where elevated level radiation hazard, special access is needed - this is inside the collider itself.
And so - employees move around the territory without any problems.
Just a minute - billions of dollars have been invested here and a lot of the most incredible equipment.
And right there I remember some abandoned objects in the Crimea, where everything was cut out for a long time, but, nevertheless, everything is mega-secret, it is by no means possible to shoot, and the object is a strategic one.
It's just that here people think adequately with their heads.

7. This is what the territory of the CMS looks like. No show-off in the exterior and super-cars in the parking lot. But they can afford it. There is simply no need.

8. CERN, as a leading world science Center in the field of physics, uses several different directions in terms of PR. One of them is the so-called "Tree".
Within its framework, school physics teachers from different countries and cities. They are shown and told here. Then the teachers return to their schools and tell the students about what they saw. A certain number of students, inspired by the story, begin with great interest study physics, then go to universities for physical specialties and in the future, perhaps even get to work here.
But while the children are still in school, they also have the opportunity to visit CERN and, of course, go down to the Large Hadron Collider.
Several times a month special "days open doors"For gifted children from different countries who are in love with physics.
They are selected by the very teachers who formed the basis of this tree and submit proposals to the CERN office in Switzerland.
It so happened that on the day we arrived to see the Large Hadron Collider, one of these groups from Ukraine came here - children, pupils of the Small Academy of Sciences, who passed a difficult competition. Together with them we descended to a depth of 100 meters, to the very heart of the Collider.

9. Glory with our badges.
Essential elements of the physicists working here are a helmet with a flashlight and boots with a metal plate on the toe (to save your toes when a load falls)

10. Gifted children, keen on physics. In a few minutes their place will come true - they will descend into the Large Hadron Collider

11. Workers are playing dominoes before the next shift underground

12. Control and management center CMS. Primary data from the main sensors that characterize the functioning of the system are collected here.
During the work of the collider, a team of 8 people is working here around the clock.

13. I must say that in currently The Large Hadronny was shut down for two years to carry out a program of repair and modernization of the collider.
The fact is that 4 years ago there was an accident on it, after which the collider did not work at full capacity (I will tell you about the accident in the next post).
After the modernization, which will be completed in 2014, it should operate at even higher capacity.
If the collider was working now, we would definitely not be able to visit it.

14. On a special technical lift we go down to a depth of more than 100 meters, where the Collider is located.
The lift is the only means of rescuing personnel in case of emergency since there are no stairs. That is, it is the safest place in the CMS.
According to the instructions, in the event of an alarm, all personnel must immediately go to the elevator.
Overpressure is created here so that in case of smoke, smoke does not get inside and people do not get poisoned.

15. Boris is worried that there will be no smoke

16. At depth. Everything here is permeated with communications

17. Endless kilometers of wires and cables for data transmission

18. There are a lot of pipes here. The so-called cryogenics. The fact is that helium is used for cooling inside the magnets. Cooling of other systems is also required, as well as hydraulics.

19. There is a huge number of servers in the data processing rooms located in the detector.
They are bundled into what are known as incredible performance triggers.
For example, the first trigger in 3 milliseconds from 40,000,000 events should select about 400 and transmit them to the second trigger - the highest level.

20. Fiber-optic madness.
Computer rooms are located above the detector, because there is a very small magnetic field that does not interfere with the operation of the electronics.
In the detector itself, data collection would not have been possible.

21. Global trigger. It consists of 200 computers

22. What's Apple like? Dell !!!

23. Server cabinets are securely locked

24. A funny drawing on one of the operator's workplaces.

25. At the end of 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider, as a result of the experiment, the Higgs Boson was discovered, and this event was widely noted by the employees of CERN.
Champagne bottles after the celebration were not thrown away on purpose, considering that this is only the beginning of great things.

26. On the way to the detector itself there are signs warning of radiation hazard everywhere

26. All Collider employees have personal dosimeters, which they must bring to the reading device and fix their location.
The dosimeter accumulates the level of radiation and, in the event of approaching the limit dose, informs the employee, and also transmits data to the control post online, warning that there is a person near the collider who is in danger

27. In front of the detector is a top-level access system.
You can log in by attaching a personal card, a dosimeter and having completed a retinal scan

28. Which is what I do

29. And here it is - a detector. The small sting inside is something like a drill chuck, which houses those huge magnets that would seem very small now. There are currently no magnets as undergoing modernization

30. In working condition, the detector is connected and looks like a single whole

31. The weight of the detector is 15 thousand tons. An incredible magnetic field is created here.

32. Compare the dimensions of the detector with the people and technicians working below

33. Cable of blue color- power, red - data

34. It is interesting that during operation, the Large Hadronny consumes 180 megawatts of electricity per hour.

35. Routine sensor maintenance work

36. Numerous sensors

37. And the power supply to them ... the optical fiber returns back

38. The look of an incredibly intelligent person.

39. An hour and a half under the ground flies like five minutes ... Having climbed back to the mortal earth, one involuntarily wonders ... HOW it can be done.
AND WHY do they do it….