Chapter 1: A New Era in Particle Physics

This week marks a pivotal moment for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), as it prepares to surpass its previous collision energy records. What groundbreaking discoveries lie ahead?

After two months of operation, the world’s largest particle accelerator is gearing up for a significant milestone. Starting tomorrow, it will accelerate protons to collide at energies that have never been achieved before.

[Photo: CERN, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

CERN officials declared last week, “A new season has begun for physics.” The European Center for Nuclear Research, located near Geneva, is home to this remarkable facility.

The LHC is an enormous apparatus situated within a 27-kilometer-long underground tunnel. It generates beams of protons that move in opposite directions. As these protons reach nearly the speed of light, they collide with immense energy levels, producing a variety of elementary particles. Seven detectors positioned throughout the tunnel capture these events, allowing scientists to analyze the data and explore the fundamental building blocks of our universe.

Section 1.1: The Journey of the LHC

The LHC first launched in 2008, and in July 2012, it made headlines with the monumental discovery of the Higgs boson—a particle that had previously existed only in theoretical discussions. This boson is a crucial element of the Standard Model, which categorizes the fundamental particles of matter.

The LHC has undergone two shutdowns since its inception, the first from 2013 to 2015 for improvements and the second from 2018 until April 2022. Each time, the collider was enhanced to allow for even greater proton beam energies, increasing the likelihood of detecting rare particles and achieving scientific breakthroughs. Researchers aim to unlock some of the greatest mysteries of modern physics, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

[Photo: SimonWaldherr, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons] Section 1.2: Record-Breaking Energies ===================================================

After two months of circulating proton beams, the LHC is set to reach a record energy of 13.6 TeV (trillions of electron volts) tomorrow. Initially, when it began operations, the LHC could only achieve 1.18 TeV.

The recent upgrades have significantly enhanced its capabilities, including a reduction in the beam diameter to just 10 microns (or millionths of a meter), making it narrower than a human hair, which measures approximately 70 microns. A tighter beam increases the likelihood of proton collisions, and researchers anticipate that the ATLAS and CMS detectors will register an astonishing 1.6 billion collisions each second—twenty times more than during the initial Higgs boson discovery phase.

[Photo: Maximilien Brice (CERN), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons] Section 1.3: Future Investigations ================================================

With these enhanced capabilities, scientists are eager to investigate the Higgs boson further. Many questions remain unanswered, such as whether it is indeed an elementary particle or if it consists of other components. Joachim Mnich of CERN expressed these uncertainties during a conference announcing the new series of experiments set to begin tomorrow.

The LHC is scheduled to operate continuously until 2026, with plans for an even larger particle accelerator, the Future Circular Collider, which is expected to span 100 km and achieve energies of 100 TeV.

Public Lecture—The Large Hadron Collider: Redefining High Energy

Explore insights into the LHC's groundbreaking achievements and its role in advancing our understanding of the universe.

Live from CERN: Join us for the first collisions for physics at 13.6 TeV!

Experience the excitement of the LHC's latest collision events and the implications for future research.

Chapter 2: Future Horizons

The Capstone mission has successfully launched and is set to investigate the orbit of the future Gateway lunar station! This small satellite, measuring just 34 x 61 cm, was deployed via a compact Electron rocket, which stands at a mere 17 meters tall. Remarkably, the entire mission was accomplished at a cost of only $30 million.

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