Large Electron-Positron Collider
The Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) was one of the largest particle accelerators ever constructed. It was built at CERN, a multi-national centre for research in nuclear and particle physics near Geneva, Switzerland.
LEP collided electrons with positrons at energies that reached 209 GeV. It was a circular collider with a circumference of 27 kilometres built in a tunnel roughly 100 m underground and passing through Switzerland and France. LEP was used from 1989 until 2000. Around 2001 it was dismantled to make way for the Large Hadron Collider, which re-used the LEP tunnel. To date, LEP is the most powerful accelerator of leptons ever built.
Design
The original feasibility study was published in 1976.[1] The LEP designs, as the project evolved, were subsequently presented in the so-called Blue, Pink and Green books.
Project leaders
In 1980 Herwig Schopper announced that Emilio Picasso would lead the LEP project once it was approved,[2] Emilio held this post through the construction, and initial operation of LEP 1 until he left CERN in 1992.[3] In 1990 Carlo Wyss became deputy to the LEP 200 project leader, Günther Plass, who was the Director for Accelerators at the time.[4] Wyss was appointed LEP 200 project leader by Carlo Rubbia in January 1991, a position he held until he was replaced by Stephen Myers in April 1996.[5][6][7] Myers led the project until its end in year 2000.[5]
References
- ↑ Physics with very high-energy e+e− colliding beams, CERN-76-18, doi:10.5170/CERN-1976-018.
- ↑ 66th Session of Council, 26 - 27 Jun 1980 - CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, CERN/1377/Draft, https://cds.cern.ch/record/28023/.
- ↑ Emilio Picasso’s contagious enthusiasm for physics, CERN Courier, 27 January 2015, https://cerncourier.com/a/emilio-picassos-contagious-enthusiasm-for-physics/.
- ↑ Archives of Large Electron Positron Collider Division and Committee, LEP and LEPC, https://sis.web.cern.ch/archives/CERN_archive/guide/accelerators/LEP/isalep.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Stephen Myers - More collaboration for accelerators, CERN Bulletin, No. 05-06/2009, 26 January 2009, https://cds.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2009/06/News%20Articles/1156859.
- ↑ A Personal History of CERN Particle Colliders (1972–2022), Stephen Myers, Highlights in High-Energy Physics, 2025, 1(1): 9. doi: 10.53941/hihep.2025.100009.
- ↑ IPAC2010 Accelerator Prize article: Particle accelerators and colliders, Stephen Myers, Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 23 (2020) 124802, 10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.23.124802.
For more information, see Wikipedia.