We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
CERN: Behind the Physics by Derek Mathieson & Dr. Sofia Vallecorsa
Explore the inner workings of CERN, including the Large Hadron Collider, superconducting cables, and quantum technology initiatives, behind the physics of groundbreaking discoveries and applications.
- The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is a 27km-long underground tunnel where protons are accelerated to nearly the speed of light.
- There are around 100 billion protons in each bunch, and they pass each other about 40 million times a second.
- The LHC has around 4,600 magnets, which are assembled from laminations of special austenitic steel.
- The machine uses superconducting cables carrying 12,000 amps to create a magnetic field of about 8.3 Tesla.
- The super proton synchrotron gathers the particles together and accelerates them to 99.998% of the speed of light over a period of around three seconds.
- The particles are then colliding to create new states and forms of matter, which are detected by large 3D cameras (detectors).
- The data from the collisions is then processed using around 1.4 million computer cores with a storage capacity of 1.5 exabytes of data.
- The computing infrastructure is used for various applications, including machine learning, simulations, and data analysis.
- CERN is also home to UNOSAT, an organization that uses satellite images for humanitarian purposes, and is involved in various research projects, including climate change and quantum computing.
- The quantum technology initiative at CERN aims to develop new technologies and applications for quantum computers, such as quantum sensors, cryptography, and computing.
- The initiative is also exploring the potential of quantum computing for AI, pattern recognition, and other applications.
- CERN’s experiments, such as the ATLAS and CMS detectors, have led to important discoveries, including the Higgs boson.
- The sensors and detectors developed at CERN have also been applied in other fields, such as port security and earthquake detection.