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LHC

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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.[1][2] It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, and hundreds of universities and laboratories across more than 100 countries.[3] It lies in a tunnel Template:Convert in circumference and as deep as Template:Convert beneath the France–Switzerland border near Geneva.

The first collisions were achieved in 2010 at an energy of 3.5 tera-electronvolts (TeV) per beam, about four times the previous world record.[4][5] The discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC was announced in 2012. Between 2013 and 2015, the LHC was shut down and upgraded; after those upgrades it reached 6.5 TeV per beam (13.0 TeV total collision energy).[6][7][8][9] At the end of 2018, it was shut down for maintenance and further upgrades, and reopened over three years later in April 2022.[10]

The collider has four crossing points where the accelerated particles collide. Nine detectors,[11] each designed to detect different phenomena, are positioned around the crossing points. The LHC primarily collides proton beams, but it can also accelerate beams of heavy ions, such as in lead–lead collisions and proton–lead collisions.[12]

The LHC's goal is to allow physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics, including measuring the properties of the Higgs boson,[13] searching for the large family of new particles predicted by supersymmetric theories,[14] and studying other unresolved questions in particle physics.


For more information see Wikipedia

  1. "The Large Hadron Collider". CERN. 28 June 2023.
  2. Joel Achenbach (March 2012). "The God Particle". National Geographic Magazine. 
  3. Highfield, Roger (16 September 2008). "Large Hadron Collider: Thirteen ways to change the world". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
  4. "CERN LHC sees high-energy success". BBC News. 30 March 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  5. Template:Cite press release
  6. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named BBC
  7. O'Luanaigh, Cian. "Proton beams are back in the LHC". CERN. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  8. Rincon, Paul (3 June 2015). "Large Hadron Collider turns on 'data tap'". Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  9. Webb, Jonathan (21 May 2015). "LHC smashes energy record with test collisions". Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  10. "2022 Digital Media Kit: Higgs10, LHC Run 3 and restart". CERN. 2023-10-07. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  11. "Facts and figures about the LHC". CERN. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  12. "Time for lead collisions in the LHC". CERN. 2023-10-07. Retrieved 2023-10-10.
  13. "Missing Higgs". CERN. 2008. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
  14. "Towards a superforce". CERN. 2008. Archived from the original on 18 February 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2008.