Operations In LHC

LHC operations
Having to accelerate two particles beams at the same time, the LHC is in fact "two machines in one". It will consist of two " superconducting magnetic channels" or "rings" housed in the same yoke and cryostat, a unique configuration that not only saves space but also gives a 25 % cost saving over separate rings!

The two rings will be filled with protons delivered from the SPS and its pre-accelerators at 0.45 TeV, and will accelerate them up to almost the speed of light, at an energy of 7 TeV.

What we call a "proton beam" is in fact a succession of squeezed groups of protons called "bunches". The two LHC beams will consist each of 2835 bunches of 1011 particles each. Once the 7 TeV energy is reached, the beams will counter-rotate for several hours, and during this time the particles will make four hundred million revolutions around the machine, a truly astronomical number. At each turn, the beams will be forced to collide in determined places, where the experiments are located. After about 10 hours the beams will become so degraded that the machine will have to be emptied and refilled.