LEP - The Lord of the Collider Rings at CERN 1980-2000

The author of this fascinating volume was director-general of CERN during the crucial period of the collider's construction and recounts vividly the convoluted decision-making, technically challenging construction, and fruitful research at the facility.

Housed by a 4 m diameter tunnel of 27 km circumference, with huge underground labs and numerous surface facilities, and set up with a precision of 0.1 mm per kilometer, the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) was not only the largest but also one of the most sophisticated scientific research instruments ever created by Man. Located at CERN, near Geneva, LEP was built during the years 1983 - 1989, was operational until 2000, and corroborated the standard model of particle physics through continuous high precision measurements.

The Author, director-general of CERN during the crucial period of the construction of LEP, recounts vividly the convoluted decision-making and technical implementation processes - the tunnel alone being a highly challenging geo- and civil engineering project - and the subsequent extremely fruitful period of scientific research. Finally he describes the difficult decision to close down LEP, at a time when the discovery of the Higgs boson seemed within reach.

LEP was eventually dismantled in 2000, enabling the tunnel to be reused for building the next generation machine, the much more powerful Large Hadron Collider (LHC), an upgrade then called LEP3 and foreseen from the beginning. It became operational just as this account was being completed.

Written by the main protagonist responsible for making LEP a reality, this is the definitive inside story of a remarkable machine and the many thousands of scientists and engineers from around the world, whose efforts contributed to the new knowledge it produced.

Written by the main actor in charge of making LEP a reality, this is the definitive account of the great story of a machine and the many thousands of scientists and engineers involved

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Contenu
Why LEP and Why at CERN?.- The Difficult Decision of LEP#x2019;s Size and Energy.- The Approval, or How To Persuade Governments.- The Tunnelling Adventure.- The Environment #x2013; People and Nature.- LEP #x2013; The Technical Challenge.- The LEP Experiments #x2013; Institutions in Themselves.- What Have We Learned from LEP? #x2013; Physics Results.- Creating New Technologies.- Unloved but Necessary #x2013; Management and Finances.- How To Invite the Pope? #x2013; VIP Visits.- CERN #x2013; Bringing Nations Together.- The Complicated Transition from LEP to the LHC.- The Dramatic Last Period of LEP.