How the Large Hadron Collider Works

 

Look at the universe's inner workings. Here’s how it works and why it’s important to scientific discovery.

 

How to Build a Hadron Collider

It might be hard to believe, but every time you get into your car, you’re experiencing a small-scale version of one of nature’s most violent phenomena. When your car engine turns on, thousands of explosions happen every second. There are explosions everywhere in our universe—so many that scientists have given them a name: particle accelerators.

 

The Theory Behind the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider works by accelerating two beams of particles to very high speeds and colliding them in a huge underground tunnel below the France-Switzerland border. When particles collide at these super high speeds, they create secondary particles (like muons, neutrinos, pions, and kaons). These secondary particles can eventually decay into other subatomic structures that may be even more complex.

 

About CERN

CERN is a European research organization with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Established in 1954, it was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and has 20 member states. With a budget of $1.32 billion (US), it employs roughly 3,000 people from more than 100 countries working together to understand the universe's fundamental structure. The LHC is one of many experimental particle accelerators that CERN houses and runs in conjunction with international organizations around Europe and beyond.

 

Future of LHC

In September 2015, scientists announced that they had discovered a new particle consistent with a Higgs boson. Although more research is needed to confirm its existence, these results demonstrate that CERN’s investments in detectors and computing infrastructure have paid off. Future upgrades will lead to an even more powerful collider by 2026. In fact, a next-generation TOTEM detector may detect Higgs bosons as soon as 2025.