Colliding proteins: building CERN's LHC.A decade from now, the world's particle physicists will have a new, powerful accelerator for studying fundamental particles and forces -- if all goes according to plan. After months of haggling over financial details, representatives of the 19 member nations of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN CERN or European Organization for Nuclear Research, nuclear and particle physics research center straddling the French-Swiss border W of Geneva, Switzerland. ) have finally approved construction of the Large Hadron Collider This article or section contains information about an expected future scientific facility. It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change as the facility approaches completion. (LHC LHC Large Hadron Collider LHC Lahore High Court LHC Lonely Hearts Club LHC Lake Havasu City (Arizona, USA) LHC Log Homes Council LHC Left-Hand Circular LHC Les Horribles Cernettes (band) ). With the U.S. cancellation of the Superconducting Super Collider The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) was a ring particle accelerator which was planned to be built in the area around Waxahachie, Texas. in October 1993 (SN: 10/30/93, p.276), the LHC now becomes the only game for particle physics at the highest achievable energies. The decision assures a future for high-energy physics. But newly imposed constraints on the project, which will cost about $1.6 billion, mean it will take years longer to complete than originally anticipated. CERN may also have to cut back on smaller projects to help pay for it. The LHC will be installed in CERN's existing tunnel, some 27 kilometers in circumference, which now houses the Large Electron-Positron (LEP (Light Emitting Polymer) An organic polymer that glows (emits photons) when excited by electricity. LEP screens are used to make organic LED (OLED) displays and are expected to compete with LCD screens in the future. See OLED. ) collider col`lid´er n. 1. (Physics) a The new facility will also require more than 1,000 high-powered, superconducting bending magnets -- each 14 meters long -- to keep two beams of protons, circulating in opposite directions, on a steady course around the ring. Made of a niobium-titanium alloy and cooled to 1.8 kelvins, these magnets will produce a magnetic field of 8.65 teslas. Last December, CERN researchers succeeded in operating a string of three prototype bending magnets for 24 hours Adv. 1. for 24 hours - without stopping; "she worked around the clock" around the clock, round the clock at the temperature and magnetic field required for the LHC. Test results indicate that the magnets can operate reliably under the same working conditions as the future accelerator. To stay within budget, CERN will build the LHC in two stages. Installation of two-thirds of the bending magnets will enable physicists to start experiments in the year 2004 with particles accelerated to 10 TeV, making possible the study of the top quark in the debris of proton-proton collisions. With all the magnets in place by 2008, the LHC will be able to operate at 14 TeV, giving researchers a chance to investigate the interactions that give a particle its mass. Financial contributions from the United States and other non-CERN nations could speed up the project's schedule. |
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