CERN shuts down Large Hadron Collider until 2030 to implement powerful new upgrades
Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful atom smasher, has entered a four-year planned shutdown that will upgrade it to its most capable form ever.
The particle accelerator was shut down on Monday (June 29) and is scheduled to come back online in 2030 as the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HiLumi LHC), with improvements that will allow it to smash them together. about 10 times more particles Compared to its original design. That data could help spark new discoveries in fundamental physics and shed light on the nature of dark matter, antimatter And the early universe.
“This is a very important moment,” HiLumi LHC project leader marcus zerloth toldAgence France-Presse. “Starting Monday, we will enter a new phase.”
Since its first successful proton collision in 2009, the LHC has allowed physicists to test theories about particle physics and physics.standard model Of the subatomic world. It was necessary to discover Higgs boson in 2012, which helped explain how small fundamental particles acquire mass. The collider covers a 17-mile (27 kilometer) loop on the border between France and Switzerland near Geneva.
The current shutdown is the third long-term, planned pause in the collider’s operations. The first, a two-year shutdown that began in 2013, allowed coordinated connections between superconducting magnets and a boost in the energy of the colliding proton beams. The second pause from 2018 to 2022 included a series of upgrades, replacements and preventive maintenance.
During the current period of inactivity, called Long Shutdown 3 (LS3), experts will install upgrades to increase the collider’s brightness up to 10 times. This will increase the number of particle collisions, almost tripling the number of particles colliding with each other compared to the current setup. Once the final version of the particle accelerator comes online, it will reach the end of its operational lifetime in the 2040s and will be scheduled for replacement by a new, higher-energy particle accelerator in the coming years.
“This is really an opportunity to explore the universe in a way we haven’t done before,” mark thomsonThe Director General of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), where the LHC is located, saidnew scientists.
Get the world’s hottest discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
Civil engineers are working on an upgrade to convert the Large Hadron Collider into a High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, significantly increasing the rate of particle collisions at the facility.
(Image credit: Samuel Joseph Hertzog, CERN)
That leap means experiments will generate much more data, which will allow scientists to study known phenomena like the Higgs boson in greater detail and increase the chances of seeing rare events. For example, the HiLumi LHC is expected to produce about 380 million Higgs bosons over its lifetime of a decade or so, compared to 55 million Higgs bosons so far. Data could help scientists solve problems with the Standard Model, which currently doesn’t include dark matter dark energyThe primary forms of mass and energy in the universe.
“LS3 represents a vast and complex logistics and engineering undertaking,” Jean-Philippe TockThe head of the LS3 coordination team said in astatement. “In the LHC alone, 1.2 km [0.75 miles] Many magnets and components will be removed and replaced with new equipment, and dozens of projects are planned across the complex, involving thousands of engineers, physicists, technicians and support personnel.”
Although the LHC will not smash any particles together during the shutdown period, researchers will continue to analyze data already collected during the experiments during the former operational window.
Although the primary purpose of the LHC is fundamental physics research, the technologies used to upgrade the collider may find their way into everyday life. For example, some instruments and techniques originally developed at CERN are now being used in medical imaging, sensors, and art restoration.
