CERN Wants to Upgrade LHC's Luminosity by 10 Times

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Just two years after LHC ran its first particle collisions on all four of its detectors.

CERN scientists are planning a major upgrade to the collider. A new plan describes an 5 - 10X increase in luminosity, which would enable the LHC to conduct many more collisions than today. LHC's current luminosity rating is 4.67 x·1032 cm−2s−1. In comparison, the Tevatron, which was shut down at the end of September, achieved 4 x 1032 cm−2s−1.

The increased luminosity is expected to enable scientists to run more collisions and, in effect, detect the rare collision events they are looking for. In a conversation with Reuters, Sergio Bertolucci, research director at CERN  said that "with processes so rare, extra luminosity makes a big difference to our ability to make precision measurements and discover new things."

The upgrade to the LHC is planned for the near future - preparations are being made during the upcoming winter shutdown - even if a luminosity is far from being trivial. According to Physorg, "higher luminosity will require new technologies to be developed in a range of fields including high field magnets, radiofrequency cavities and electrical transfer lines."

One of the benefits of the modification may be that scientists can detect evidence for the Higgs Boson.

Douglas Perry
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • eddieroolz
    I wish I can make sense of the numbers in this news article, but it seems I have failed.
    Reply
  • rottingsheep
    ... awesome?
    Reply
  • southernshark
    I think if they put some black lights in there that it would look cool.
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    I wonder if this was going to be the "big mystery" the Ancients were trying to solve in SGU?
    Reply
  • bennaye
    rottingsheep... awesome?
    awesomely expensive
    Reply
  • Granter
    You recommend all of you to watch the anime Steins gate, there is a deep story there that involves CERN and time travel, and within anime community the anime is ranked one of the best animes ever made. check it out.
    Reply
  • "One of the benefits of the modification may be that scientists can detect evidence for the Higgs Boson. "

    Oh come on! The worst case Standard Model Higgs at 115 GeV requires an average of 17/fb to discover and they recorded 10/fb this year alone. The LHC spec without this upgrade calls for 300/fb per year at twice the current energy; enough to dicover or rule out the Higgs in days. This upgrade is planned for the year 2020...
    Reply
  • cookoy
    It's there, somewhere out there, but we need more light to see it, or bigger eyes, or bigger shovels, or more power. One thing is certain, we need more cash, tons of it. And while we're talking cash, can we poor scientists get a huge payroll increase?
    Reply
  • fazers_on_stun
    cookoyIt's there, somewhere out there, but we need more light to see it, or bigger eyes, or bigger shovels, or more power. One thing is certain, we need more cash, tons of it. And while we're talking cash, can we poor scientists get a huge payroll increase?
    Heh well I have a 4-D-cell flashlight they can borrow :P..

    On a more serious note - how can CERN afford this with the Eurozone economy on the rocks? I know the US contributes some funds but the bulk comes from Europe IIRC. There's some financial "gurus" who think that the Eurozone will break up in the next year or two, dragging the US economy back into a major recession (think Dow below 8000, just like 2008-2009).
    Reply
  • nebun
    such a waste of money....how much does uncle sam donate to this program?
    Reply