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Subatomic Splashes: Restarting Experiments at CERN
Context:
Unlike microwaves or computers, the LHC at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN requires a few weeks of careful resetting each year by engineers and physicists to ensure proper calibration for accurate experiments.
This complex process prepares the collider and its detectors for new data collection.
Understanding the LHC and Its Purpose
- LHC smashes protons at the highest energy ever reached to create new particles, which physicists then catch and study with several experiments.
- This colossal machine delves into the subatomic realm.
- It was designed to reveal the secrets of the universe by recreating the conditions that existed immediately after the Big Bang.
Key Highlights:
- One of the largest experiments at the LHC is ATLAS, which aims to collect accurate data about particle collisions and unravel some of the universe’s most compelling mysteries.
- The LHC and its experiments hibernate each winter for maintenance, component replacement, and to save power when electricity costs are higher.
- In spring, teams prepare the LHC and its experiments for a new data-gathering season, with engineers resetting the accelerator and physicists preparing the detectors.
- Initially, particle detectors are tested using cosmic rays (naturally occurring subatomic particles from space).
- A cosmic ray enters the ATLAS detector, striking sensors and losing energy, which is recorded as signals.
- By tracing these signals, physicists can reconstruct the particle’s path and energy, helping to train the sensors and ensure everything functions correctly.
- Limitations:
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- Cosmic rays are random and sparse, insufficient for comprehensive testing.
- For more thorough testing, a denser and more predictable source, subatomic splashes, is used in subsequent phases.
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- Beam splashes are created by pushing a collimator into the proton beam path, generating a wave of particles that test detector synchronisation and data recording speed.
Horizontal Muons to Calibrate the Tile Calorimeter
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About the Large Hadron Collider (LHC):
- Objective: To produce and characterise the Higgs boson, a long-sought particle that gives mass to other components of the universe.
- It is a 27-km circumference particle accelerator.
- Precision Construction: When excavated between Lake Geneva and the Jura mountain range on the Franco-Swiss border, the two ends of the tunnel met with just a 1 cm error.
- It took about a decade to construct, costing approximately $4.75 billion.
- Scientific Achievement: Verification of the weak force theory, which explains why the sun shines, is one of CERN’s significant achievements.
- The LHC is the emptiest place in the solar system, with particle beams travelling in an ultra-high vacuum.
- World’s Largest Fridge: Part of the LHC operates at temperatures colder than deep outer space, capable of holding 150,000 fridges full of sausages.