Large Hadron Collider operation timeline
| Large Hadron Collider Run I | March 2010 - February 2013 |
| Long shutdown I | February 2013 - March 2015 |
| LHC Run II first beams | April 2015 |
| LHC first 13 TeV collisions | June 2015 |
| Large Hadron Collider Run II | June 2015 - 2018 |
Large Hadron Collider parameters:
| Circumference | 26,659 meters (16.57 miles) |
| Depth underground | Between 50 and 150 meters |
| Location | Swiss-French boarder; near Geneva |
| Dipole operating temperature | 1.9 K |
| LHC magnets (total number) | 9593 |
| Main dipoles (steering magnets) | 1232 |
| Main quadrapoles (focusing magnets) | 392 |
| RF cavities (accelerating components) | 8 per beam |
| Machine cost (original construction) | 4.6 billion CHF (more than $4 billion) |
Optimal beam parameters (protons and ions)
| Energy per proton | 6.5 TeV |
| Energy per ion | 2.51 TeV (per nucleon) |
| Collision energy (proton-proton collisions) | 13 TeV |
| Proton bunches per beam | 2808 bunches |
| Protons per bunch | 120 billion |
| Proton laps around LHC (per second) | 11245 laps/sec |
| Proton bunch crossings inside detectors | 40 million crossings/second |
| Number of collisions per proton bunch crossing | ~20 collisions |
| Approximate number of collisions per second | 600 millions collsions/sec |
| LHC collisions points | 4 |
| LHC operation time (before refill needed) | 8-10 hours |
| Time required to accelerate beams before collisions | Between 20 and 45 minutes |
LHC terminology
| Hadron | A clump of quarks tightly bound together. All atomic nuclei are hadrons. |
| Proton bunch | A dense packet of protons. Each bunch is about 30 cm in length and spaced about 7.5 meters (25 nano seconds) apart inside the LHC. |
| Beam | A string of bunches circulating around the LHC (1 beam travels clockwise; the other travels counter clockwise.) |
| Luminosity | A measurement of how frequently particles in the LHC collide. The higher the luminosity, the greater the average collisions/sec rate. |
| TeV | Teraelectron Volts (measurement of energy.) 1 TeV = 1,000,000,000,000 electron Volts (eV). A particle of visible light has 3 to 5 eV of energy. A flying mosquito has about 1 TeV of kinnetic energy. |
| Ion | An atom (like a lead atom) stripped of one or more of its electrons |
| HL-LHC | High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider; a planned upgrade to the LHC that will increase its luminosity by more than a factor of 5. |
LHC in perspective
- The total energy stored in a 6.5 TeV proton beam is equivalent to the kinetic energy of the USS Harry S. Truman Aircraft carrier traveling at 5.6 knots. (see calculations.)
- The energy of one proton inside the LHC is slightly more than the kinetic energy of a mosquito flying.
- Two LHC beams contain enough energy to melt nearly one tonne of copper.
- LHC collision can generate temperatures 100,000 times hotter than the center of the sun.
- The two beams circulating inside the LHC contain a total of 6 x 1014 protons. One 5 kg bottle of hydrogen gas could supply the LHC with protons for 109 years (assuming the LHC runs non-stop.)