The large hadron collider

Like CERN's previous project - the Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be a synchrotron which accelaerates and stores two intense beams of particles cirulating in opposite directions and collides them head-on at one or two points where particle physics detectors can study the interactions. While LEP collides electrons and positrons at energies E up to 100 GeV the LHC will collide two beams of protons at energies of up to 7.7 TeV. The LHC will be installed in the same underground tunnel which at present houses LEP alone. The factor of 77 increase in energy is made possible because the heavier protons do not radiate as much energy in the form of synchrotron radiation as do the electrons of LEP. (orig.)