Why build the Large Hadron Collider? - page 1
Keywords: Physics Report Large Hadron Collider Basic Introduction Grand Unified Theory Cosmic Rays Anti Matter Extra Dimensions String Theory Dark Matter Higgs Boson
By Jenny on 02/07/2009
Level: A Level (Year 13)
Page Number: 1 of 16 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Why build the Large Hadron Collider?
Aim: In this report I aim to find out why the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being built, what questions it has been built to answer and try to come to a conclusion as to whether they are important enough to justify its expense.
Summary: Firstly, I researched how the Large Hadron Collider was built, what reasons and principles were behind various aspects of its design and I have looked in detail at the design of the ATLAS detector and how it uses various tracking devices to catch different particles. I also examined collision diagrams to find out what the physicists at the LHC will be hoping to see. Then, I examined what questions the LHC was built to answer, why they are important, what the physics behind them is, and what new discoveries they may lead to - including major questions such as the search for to Higgs boson and the origins of matter, supersymmetric particles and dark matter, extra dimensions, and the possibilities of these discoveries leading to a Grand Unified Theory or even a Theory of Everything. I also looked into some of the possible reasons why the LHC should not have been built, from fears that it could cause the Earth to be ‘devoured’ by a microscopic black hole or ‘strangelets’ to whether the money could have been better spent elsewhere.
LHC Vital Statistics
The planned start up year of the LHC is 2008.
• Particles used: Protons (in proton- proton collisions) and then later heavy ions (Lead, full stripped 82+)
• Circumference: 26,659 m.
• Injector: SPS
• Injected beam energy: 450 GeV (protons)
• Nominal beam energy in physics: 7 TeV (protons)
• Magnetic field at 7 TeV: 8.33 Tesla
• Operating temperature: 1.9 K
• Number of magnets: ~9300
• Number of main dipoles: 1232
• Number of quadrupoles: ~858
• Number of correcting magnets: ~6208
• Number of RF cavities: 8 per beam; Field strength at top energy ≈ 5.5 MV/m [1][2]
The LHC is being built at CERN in a circular tunnel 27 km in circumference. The tunnel is buried around 50 to 175 m. underground. It straddles the Swiss and French borders on the outskirts of Geneva.[1]
Introduction
The first ‘particle accelerator’ type experiments were conducted by Ernest Rutherford around 100 years ago (1899/1900), he recognised that to he could learn about particles that were too small to be observed in other ways by colliding them together and studying the details of what happened
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