The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider : New Machine for Illuminating the Mysteries of the Universe

This book introduces the physics and technology of the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC), highlighting the most recent modifications that shaped the final configuration, which is now in the advanced stages of its construction. This new High-Luminosity configuration of the LHC is the major accelerator project of this decade and will give new life to the LHC after its first fifteen years of operation, allowing for more precise measurements of the Higgs Boson and extending the mass limit reach for new particles. The LHC is such a highly optimized machine that upgrading it requires breakthroughs in many areas. Unsurprisingly, the High-Luminosity LHC required a long R&D period to bring into life an innovative accelerator magnet, based on Nb3Sn and capable of generating fields in the 11–12 T range, as well as many other new accelerator technologies such as superconducting compact RF crab cavities, advanced collimation concepts, a novel powering technology based on high temperature superconducting links, and others. The book is a self-consistent series of papers, which addresses all technology and design issues. Each paper can be read separately as well. The first few papers provide a summary of the whole project, the physics motivation, and the accelerator challenges. Altogether, this book brings the reader to the heart of the technologies that will also be key for the next generation of hadron colliders. This book is an essential reference for physicists and engineers in the field of hadron colliders and LHC related issues and can also be read by postgraduate students.