The Large Hadron Collider in Pictures: an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the LHC at CERN | Science | New

The largest claim of the Large Hadron Collider is the discovery in 2012 of the Higgs Boson particle, which physicists believe interacts with other particles and gives them its mass through the Higgs field. The discovery of Higgs was hailed at the time as a quantum breakthrough in particle physics, worthy of the 2013 Noble Prize of Physics. But there is much more going on at the LHC than most people could. imagine, many of the advanced technologies of the collider being applied to everyday situations. From the development of efficient superconducting cables to proton accelerators for accurate cancer treatment, science at CERN goes a long way.

And all this is happening on a diverse campus of physicists, engineers, IT specialists and scientists from around the world.

Founded in 1954, CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research – an international collaboration of like-minded scientists who unravel the mysteries of the primitive universe.

CERN's main campus is on the outskirts of Geneva and is only minutes away from the border crossing to France.

Because of CERN's international status and its importance to the scientific community, the campus is more like a neutral diplomacy ground than an entirely European facility.

And the sheer size of the business at CERN means that the facilities and experiences of the collaboration must be reflected on the French side.

The LHC itself is a 26.6 km circuit of deep tunnels and accelerator pipes passing under France and Switzerland, hidden under the idyllic rural and mountainous landscape.

Tunnels are rarely accessible to the public and are strongly irradiated when the collider is running, but Express.co.uk has had the opportunity to see them closely thanks to the Science and Technology Facilities Council (SFTC).

The main tunnel of the collider passes through one of the many facilities scattered throughout the region, where the seven collider experiments conducted at CERN take place.

At a depth of 100 meters below ground, the LHC's characteristic blue pipelines run the full length of the circuit.

Because of the length of the tunnel, engineers and scientists move between the entrance shafts of electric bicycles or motorized three-wheelers. This is the fastest way to move in the underground environment.

Blue pipelines are home to the world's strongest magnets and superconductors, which direct and control two super-charged proton beams circulating at high speed around the LHC.

Magnets and superconductors are cooled by hundreds of tons of supercooled helium gas that is pumped into the pipes.

According to Paul Collier, head of the LHC Beams department, each pipe weighs 36 tons.

When the LHC is in operation, the proton beams are accelerated to a fraction of the speed, which corresponds to about 11,245 cycles of the complete circuit per second.

The protons are then assembled into one of seven LHC collider machines, cathedral-sized experiments in which physicists used incredibly sophisticated detectors to find traces of primordial particles.

When the protons collide at high speed, scientists recreate on a miniaturized scale the conditions of the early universe to break down the protons and see what new particles emerge in the process.

At CERN, the four main experiments are the LHC Toroidal Apparatus (ATLAS), the LHC-beauty (LHCb), a large ion collider experiment (ALICE) and the compact muon solenoid (CMS).

ATLAS and CMS where were the two colliders responsible for detecting the Higgs boson in 2012.

The CMS is a large versatile detector that studies the standard model of particle physics as well as extra-dimensional science and dark matter.

The machine is built around a monstrous solenoid magnet, crossed by different detectors, like the layers of an onion.

The LHCb, meanwhile, studies the properties of the so-called quad beauty or quark b.

In March, LCHb announced the world's first discovery of a particle of pentaquark, belonging to a mysterious family of particles called exotic hadrons.

Today, experiments are disabled and are currently undergoing critical repairs and upgrades for the next series of CHL experiments.

CERN's operations involve three-year beam activity periods, followed by two years of upgrades, maintenance, repairs and data analysis.

It is expected that the LHC will come to life for the third race during the summer of 2021, by which time each of the seven colliders will be upgraded to face more intense experiences ahead .

CERN physicists call this upgrade a high luminosity, which results in more collisions and more particles.

To date, the LHC remains the only facility of its kind in the world capable of producing the Higgs boson.

And scientists hope to discover a greater variety of rarely seen particles, such as the fleeting pentaquark of the LHCb experiment, or even have a glimpse of dark matter, extremely elusive.

Whatever each experiment might have hoped for, none of this would have been possible without the overall financial contributions and hard work of CERN physicists.

The United Kingdom itself was a founding member of the collaboration in 1954 and the innovative work on accelerators carried out in places such as the University of Swansea Wales has proved invaluable for the development of the LHC.

As such, Britain continues to play a vital role in everything that happens at CERN thanks to the important technology and engineering provided by UK-based universities and companies.

Physicists such as Dave Barney, who works on the CMS Collider, are currently prototyping and building a new type of particle detector to enter the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECAL).

Glyn Kirby, an engineer and magnets expert, is in another Content Management System (CMS) installation that is actively involved in the development of new magnets for the high-brightness upgrade.

For this reason, Stephanie Hills, SFTC, said, "This is the UK National Laboratory for Particle Physics."