Birth of a giant : first runs of the LHC
On September 10th, 2009, the start of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) took place at CERN, near Geneva.
The LHC is a ring of 27 kilometers in length, buried 100 m underground, near the Swiss-french boundary. It is the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Protons (or ions) of very high energy circulate in two beams at very high speed, in reverse directions and collide to allow the search of clues for new particles, dark matter candidates and the origin of particle masses.
The website "lhc-france.fr" of l'Irfu and IN2P3 gives all details about the participation of CNRS and CEA at the project.
J. Bonnet-bidaud, 2008-09-15 00:00:00
