Engineer Katy Foraz shows Pallab Ghosh how to upgrade the Large Hadron Collider
Engineers have begun a major upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Their work should double the energy of what's already the most powerful particle accelerator in the world.
BBC News is the first to be allowed to see inside the LHC - on the French-Swiss border - to watch the work being carried out.
Scientists believe the upgrade will enable them to discover new particles which will lead to a more complete theory of how the Universe works.
A project leader with the LHC's Atlas experiment, Dr Pippa Wells told BBC News that there was much more to come from the LHC.
"The past two years have been the most exciting in my time as a particle physicist. People are absolutely fired up. They've made one new discovery (the Higgs) and they want to make more discoveries with the new high energies that the upgrade will give us. We could find a new realm of particle physics".
I was taken by the technical coordinator for the upgrade project, Katy Foraz and Cern's UK communications manager Stephanie Hills, to one of the many access points to the LHC's underground tunnels.
Continue reading the main storyLHC Upgrade
- Replace 10,000 connections
- Install 5,000 insulation systems
- 10170 leak tests
- 18,000 electrical tests
- Total cost ?70m
We entered a lift shaft with two buttons marked zero and minus 1. Katy hit minus 1 and we made our way 100 metered below the surface.
As the lift doors opened we walked to a large heavy green door which we strained to open.
As we went through it was like entering Aladdin's cave.
No jewels or gold - but one of the largest and most complex machines ever built. A bright blue superconducting beam-line stretches into the distance - around it are gleaming precision instruments to make the line one of the coldest places in the Universe.
In front of me engineers were replacing some the first connectors. In all 10,000 will need to be changed. 800 people are involved in this project which will cost ?70m.
The tasks also include testing and replacing some of the LHC's main dipole and quadrupole magnets, which are used to bend the paths of the particles and keep them tightly bunched; conducting tests to detect any irregularities in the magnets or imperfections in the electrical insulation; and a range of other work to improve the machine.
Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End Quote Katy Foraz LHC Upgrade coordinatorWe are always at the limit of what we know in terms of the technology. It is very exciting for an engineer to be close to all these new technologies?
The LHC is known for its cutting edge science. But as we walked to this scientific wonderland Katy told me that for her and her team people forget that the particle accelerator is also on the cutting edge of engineering, after all creating the conditions of the beginning of the Universe is no easy feat.
"We are always at the limit of what we know in terms of the technology. It is very exciting: as the coordinator I have access to all the technology and they really are at their limit in terms of superconductivity cryogenics. It is very exciting for an engineer to be close to all these new technologies," she said.
Katy and her team of engineers are calling the work an "upgrade". But critics say it's a repair.
As we walked passed a team replacing a damaged connector Cern's Stephanie Hills was quick to respond to the charge that this expensive refit is putting right a mistake that shouldn't have been made in the first place.
"Nobody has ever done this kind of technology before. Everything from the most basic welding to the most complicated beam diagnostics is pushing the boundaries of technology, and sometimes these things just don't go right simply because we don't know how it's going to work," she told me.
"You can see in front of us the way that we're managing the upgrade is meticulous. There is lots and lots of quality control, making sure that everything's absolutely spot-on so that when we turn the machine back on we are absolutely ready for some more fantastic scientific discoveries."
The damage was done shortly after the switch on of the Large Hadron Collider in September 2008.
The LHC upgrade will enable it to discover new particles. Pallab Ghosh explains how this will lead to a radical change in our understanding of how the Universe works.
Nine days later it broke down because the connections between the superconducting magnets simply couldn't take the current running through them.
It took a year and ?24 million pounds of taxpayer's money to repair the damage. Even then it could only operate on half power. That was enough to discover the much sought-after Higgs Boson.
Continue reading the main story?Start Quote
End Quote Dr Pippa Wells Atlas Project LeaderThe LHC is more than just a one trick pony, We hope to find something completely new that will change our understanding of the Universe. ?
Those in charge made a pragmatic decision. They decided to press ahead to keep their funders happy.
To their joy and relief scientists had found their prize last summer. And so at the beginning of this year it was politically possible for Cern to begin the long shut down to fix faulty connections.
Back above ground, students from around the world are shown the Atlas control room, one of the places where data from the LHC will be gathered when it is switched back on. That is something for the students to look forward to - because after the upgrade the beams will be crashing into each other at twice the power.
This will enable researchers here to move on to their ultimate goal: to find evidence of so-called "new physics", which they believe, will lead to a new more compete theory of sub-atomic physics.
The discovery of the Higgs last year was the end of a successful chapter of late 20th century physics.
This was the development of the current theory in the 1960s and 70s called the "Standard Model".
This theory says that most of the forces of nature, the objects around us and our own existence, is all down to the interaction of the Higgs with 16 other particles. It successfully explains how electricity, magnetism and light operate.
Since then, all the particles predicted by the Standard Model have been discovered - most recently the Higgs.
The problem though is that more recently scientists have found that this theory is limited. It explains the world around us extremely well - but it can't explain the way most of the Universe behaves.
Physicists hope that by operating at full power, the LHC will be able to find evidence of so-called supersymmetric particles. These are like the particles on the Standard Model - but more massive.
One form of supersymmetry predicts that there should be five Higgs Bosons, which are each slightly different. The first order of business for LHC scientists when the collisions resume in 2015 will be to test the Higgs that's been discovered, to see if it shows any of the properties predicted by supersymmetry, according to Dr Wells.
"The LHC is more than just a one trick pony," said Dr Wells. "It wasn't designed to find just the Higgs. We hope to find something completely new that will change our understanding of the Universe. We are on the threshold of finding many more new particles."
Follow Pallab on Twitter @bbcpallab
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21941666#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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