CERN

CERN (Courtesy of Wikipedia, Encyclopedia). Coordinates: 46°14′03″N 6°03′10″E European Organization for Nuclear Research Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire CERN's main site, from Switzerland looking towards France Member states Formation September 29, 1954; 64 years ago[1] Headquarters Meyrin, Canton of Geneva,Switzerland Membership 22 countries[show] Official languages English and French Council President Sijbrand de Jong[2] Director General Fabiola Gianotti Website home.cern The European Organization for Nuclear Research (French: Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire), known as CERN (/sɜːrn/; French pronunciation: ​[sɛʁn]; derived from the name Conseil européen pour la recherche nucléaire), is a European research organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, the organization is based in a northwest suburb of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border, and has 22 member states.[3] Israel is the only non-European country granted full membership.[4] CERN is an official United Nations Observer.[5] The acronym CERN is also used to refer to the laboratory, which in 2016 had 2,500 scientific, technical, and administrative staff members, and hosted about 12,000 users. In the same year, CERN generated 49 petabytes of data.[6] CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research – as a result, numerous experiments have been constructed at CERN through international collaborations. The main site at Meyrin hosts a large computing facility, which is primarily used to store and analyse data from experiments, as well as simulate events. Researchers need remote access to these facilities, so the lab has historically been a major wide area network hub. CERN is also the birthplace of the World Wide Web.[7][8] CERN's main site, from Switzerland looking towards France Member states Formation September 29, 1954; 64 years ago[1] Headquarters Meyrin, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland Membership 22 countries. Official languages English and French Council President Sijbrand de Jong[2] Director General Fabiola Gianotti Website home.cern The 12 founding member states of CERN in 1954[1] (map borders from 1954–1990) The convention establishing CERN was ratified on 29 September 1954 by 12 countries in Western Europe.[1] The acronym CERN originally represented the French words for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research), which was a provisional council for building the laboratory, established by 12 European governments in 1952. The acronym was retained for the new laboratory after the provisional council was dissolved, even though the name changed to the current Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in 1954. CERN's first president was Sir Benjamin Lockspeiser. Edoardo Amaldi was the general secretary of CERN at its early stages when operations were still provisional, while the first Director-General (1954) was Felix Bloch.[10] The laboratory was originally devoted to the study of atomic nuclei, but was soon applied to higher-energy physics, concerned mainly with the study of interactions between subatomic particles. Therefore, the laboratory operated by CERN is commonly referred to as the European laboratory for particle physics (Laboratoire européen pour la physique des particules), which better describes the research being performed there. Scientific achievements Several important achievements in particle physics have been made through experiments at CERN. They include: · 1973: The discovery of neutral currents in the Gargamelle bubble chamber;[12] · 1983: The discovery of W and Z bosons in the UA1 and UA2 experiments;[13] · 1989: The determination of the number of light neutrino families at the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) operating on the Z boson peak; · 1995: The first creation of antihydrogen atoms in the PS210 experiment;[14] · 1999: The discovery of direct CP violation in the NA48 experiment;[15] · 2010: The isolation of 38 atoms of antihydrogen;[16] · 2011: Maintaining antihydrogen for over 15 minutes;[17] · 2012: A boson with mass around 125 GeV/c2 consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson.[18] In September 2011, CERN attracted media attention when the OPERA Collaboration reported the detection of possibly faster-than-light neutrinos.[19] Further tests showed that the results were flawed due to an incorrectly connected GPS synchronization cable.[20] The 1984 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer for the developments that resulted in the discoveries of the W and Z bosons. The 1992 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to CERN staff researcher Georges Charpak "for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber". The 2013 Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs for the theoretical description of the Higgs mechanism in the year after the Higgs boson was found by CERN experiments. Computer science History of the World Wide Web (www.com) This NeXT Computer used by British scientistSir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN became the firstWeb server. This Cisco Systems router at CERN was one of the first IP routers deployed in Europe. A plaque at CERN commemorating the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee andRobert Cailliau The World Wide Web began as a CERN project namedENQUIRE, initiated by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 and Robert Cailliau in 1990.[21] Berners-Lee and Cailliau were jointly honoured by the Association for Computing Machinery in 1995 for their contributions to the development of the World Wide Web. Based on the concept of hypertext, the project was intended to facilitate the sharing of information between researchers. The first website was activated in 1991. On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone. A copy[22] of the original first webpage, created by Berners-Lee, is still published on the World Wide Web Consortium's website as a historical document. Prior to the Web's development, CERN had pioneered the introduction of Internet technology, beginning in the early 1980s.[23] More recently, CERN has become a facility for the development of grid computing, hosting projects including the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) and LHC Computing Grid. It also hosts the CERN Internet Exchange Point (CIXP), one of the two main internet exchange points in Switzerland. Particle accelerators CERN accelerator complex List of current particle accelerators at CERN Linac 2 Accelerates protons Linac 3 Accelerates ions Linac 4 Accelerates negative hydrogen ions AD Decelerates antiprotons LHC Collides protons or heavy ions LEIR Accelerates ions PSB Accelerates protons or ions PS Accelerates protons or ions SPS Accelerates protons or ions Map of the Large Hadron Collidertogether with the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN. CERN operates a network of six accelerators and a decelerator. Each machine in the chain increases the energy of particle beams before delivering them to experiments or to the next more powerful accelerator. Currently active machines are: · Two linear accelerators generate low energy particles. LINAC 2 accelerates protons to 50 MeV for injection into the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB), and LINAC 3 provides heavy ions at 4.2 MeV/u for injection into the Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR).[24] · The Proton Synchrotron Booster increases the energy of particles generated by the proton linear accelerator before they are transferred to the other accelerators. · The Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR) accelerates the ions from the ion linear accelerator, before transferring them to the Proton Synchrotron(PS). This accelerator was commissioned in 2005, after having been reconfigured from the previous Low Energy Antiproton Ring(LEAR). · · The 28 GeV Proton Synchrotron (PS), built during 1954—1959 and still operating as a feeder to the more powerful SPS. · The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), a circular accelerator with a diameter of 2 kilometres built in a tunnel, which started operation in 1976. It was designed to deliver an energy of 300 GeV and was gradually upgraded to 450 GeV. As well as having its own beamlines for fixed-target experiments (currently COMPASS and NA62), it has been operated as a proton–antiproton collider (the SppS collider), and for accelerating high energy electrons and positrons which were injected into the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP). Since 2008, it has been used to inject protons and heavy ions into the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). · The On-Line Isotope Mass Separator (ISOLDE), which is used to study unstable nuclei. The radioactive ions are produced by the impact of protons at an energy of 1.0–1.4 GeV from the Proton Synchrotron Booster. It was first commissioned in 1967 and was rebuilt with major upgrades in 1974 and 1992. · The Antiproton Decelerator (AD), which reduces the velocity of antiprotons to about 10% of the speed of light for research of antimatter. · The Compact Linear Collider Test Facility, which studies feasibility for the future normal conducting linear collider project. · The AWAKE experiment, which is a proof-of-principle plasma wakefield accelerator. Large Hadron Collider Many activities at CERN currently involve operating the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the experiments for it. The LHC represents a large-scale, worldwide scientific cooperation project. Construction of the CMSdetector for LHC at CERN. The LHC tunnel is located 100 metres underground, in the region between the Geneva International Airport and the nearby Jura mountains. The majority of its length is on the French side of the border. It uses the 27 km circumference circular tunnel previously occupied by the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP), which was shut down in November 2000. CERN's existing PS/SPS accelerator complexes are used to pre-accelerate protons and lead ions which are then injected into the LHC. Seven experiments (CMS, ATLAS, LHCb, MoEDAL,[25] TOTEM, LHC-forward and ALICE) are located along the collider; each of them studies particle collisions from a different aspect, and with different technologies. Construction for these experiments required an extraordinary engineering effort. For example, a special crane was rented from Belgium to lower pieces of the CMS detector into its underground cavern, since each piece weighed nearly 2,000 tons. The first of the approximately 5,000 magnets necessary for construction was lowered down a special shaft at 13:00 GMT on 7 March 2005. The LHC has begun to generate vast quantities of data, which CERN streams to laboratories around the world for distributed processing (making use of a specialized grid infrastructure, the LHC Computing Grid). During April 2005, a trial successfully streamed 600 MB/s to seven different sites across the world. The initial particle beams were injected into the LHC August 2008.[26] The first beam was circulated through the entire LHC on 10 September 2008,[27] but the system failed 10 days later because of a faulty magnet connection, and it was stopped for repairs on 19 September 2008. The LHC resumed operation on 20 November 2009 by successfully circulating two beams, each with an energy of 3.5 teraelectronvolts (TeV). The challenge for the engineers was then to try to line up the two beams so that they smashed into each other. This is like "firing two needles across the Atlantic and getting them to hit each other" according to Steve Myers, director for accelerators and technology. On 30 March 2010, the LHC successfully collided two proton beams with 3.5 TeV of energy per proton, resulting in a 7 TeV collision energy. However, this was just the start of what was needed for the expected discovery of the Higgs boson. When the 7 TeV experimental period ended, the LHC revved to 8 TeV (4 TeV per proton) starting March 2012, and soon began particle collisions at that energy. In July 2012, CERN scientists announced the discovery of a new sub-atomic particle that was later confirmed to be the Higgs boson.[28] In March 2013, CERN announced that the measurements performed on the newly found particle allowed it to conclude that this is a Higgs boson.[29] In early 2013, the LHC was deactivated for a two-year maintenance period, to strengthen the electrical connections between magnets inside the accelerator and for other upgrades. On 5 April 2015, after two years of maintenance and consolidation, the LHC restarted for a second run. The first ramp to the record-breaking energy of 6.5 TeV was performed on 10 April 2015.[30][31] In 2016, the design collision rate was exceeded for the first time.[32] A second two-year period of shutdown is scheduled to begin at the end of 2018. Enlargement Associate Members, Candidates: · Serbia became a candidate for accession to CERN on 19 December 2011, signed an association agreement on 10 January 2012[54][55] and became an associate member in the pre-stage to membership on 15 March 2012.[45] · Turkey signed an association agreement on 12 May 2014[56] and became an associate member on 6 May 2015. · Pakistan signed an association agreement on 19 December 2014[57] and became an associate member on 31 July 2015.[58][59] · Cyprus signed an association agreement on 5 October 2012 and became an associate Member in the pre-stage to membership on 1 April 2016.[46] · Ukraine signed an association agreement on 3 October 2013. The agreement was ratified on 5 October 2016.[51] · India signed an association agreement on 21 November 2016.[60] The agreement was ratified on 16 January 2017.[52] · Slovenia was approved for admission as an Associate Member state in the pre-stage to membership on 16 December 2016.[47] The agreement was ratified on 4 July 2017.[48] · Lithuania was approved for admission as an Associate Member state on 16 June 2017. The association agreement was signed on 27 June 2017 and ratified on 8 January 2018.[61][53] International relations Three countries have observer status:[62] · Japan – since 1995 · Russia – since 1993 · United States – since 1997 Also observers are the following international organizations: · UNESCO – since 1954 · European Commission – since 1985 · JINR - since 2014 Non-Member States (with dates of Co-operation Agreements) currently involved in CERN programmes are:[63] · Albania · Algeria · Argentina – 11 March 1992 · Armenia – 25 March 1994 · Australia – 1 November 1991 · Azerbaijan – 3 December 1997 · Bangladesh · Belarus – 28 June 1994 · Bolivia · Brazil – 19 February 1990 & October 2006 · Canada – 11 October 1996 · Chile – 10 October 1991 · China – 12 July 1991, 14 August 1997 & 17 February 2004 · Colombia – 15 May 1993 · Croatia – 18 July 1991 · Ecuador · Egypt – 16 January 2006 · Estonia – 23 April 1996 · Georgia – 11 October 1996 · Iceland – 11 September 1996 · Iran – 5 July 2001 · Jordan - 12 June 2003.[64] MoU with Jordan and SESAME, in preparation of a cooperation agreement signed in 2004.[65] · Lithuania – 9 November 2004 · Macedonia – 27 April 2009 · Malta – 10 January 2008[66][67] · Mexico – 20 February 1998 · Mongolia · Montenegro – 12 October 1990 · Morocco – 14 April 1997 · New Zealand – 4 December 2003 · Peru – 23 February 1993 · Saudi Arabia – 21 January 2006 · South Africa – 4 July 1992 · South Korea – 25 October 2006 · United Arab Emirates – 18 January 2006 · Vietnam CERN also has scientific contacts with the following countries:[63] · Cuba · Ghana · Ireland · Latvia · Lebanon · Madagascar · Malaysia · Mozambique · Palestine · Philippines · Qatar · Rwanda · Singapore · Sri Lanka · Taiwan · Thailand · Tunisia · Uzbekistan International research institutions, such as CERN, can aid in science diplomacy.[68] Associated institutions · European Southern Observatory · Swiss National Supercomputing Centre The Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN. In September 2011, CERN attracted media attention when the OPERA Collaboration reported the detection of possibly faster-than-light neutrinos. Further tests showed that the results were flawed due to an incorrectly connected GPS synchronization cable.