Published April 8, 2005 | Version v1
Journal article

The CERN Large Hadron Collider as a tool to study high-energy density matter

  • 1. Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany)
  • 2. CERN-AB, 1211 Geneva 23 (Switzerland)
  • 3. Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institutskii pr. 18, 142432 Chernogolovka (Russian Federation)
  • 4. E.T.S.I.Industriales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 13071 Ciudad Real (Spain)
  • 5. Institut fuer Kernphysik, Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, Schlossgartenstrasse 9, 64289 Darmstadt (Germany)

Description

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will generate two extremely powerful 7 TeV proton beams. Each beam will consist of 2808 bunches with an intensity per bunch of 1.15x1011 protons so that the total number of protons in one beam will be about 3x1014 and the total energy will be 362 MJ. Each bunch will have a duration of 0.5 ns and two successive bunches will be separated by 25 ns, while the power distribution in the radial direction will be Gaussian with a standard deviation, σ=0.2 mm. The total duration of the beam will be about 89 μs. Using a 2D hydrodynamic code, we have carried out numerical simulations of the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic response of a solid copper target that is irradiated with one of the LHC beams. These calculations show that only the first few hundred proton bunches will deposit a high specific energy of 400 kJ/g that will induce exotic states of high energy density in matter

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
94
Journal Issue
13
Journal Page Range
p. 135004-135004.4
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2005 The American Physical Society