Activity Overview

Go inside the LHC-tunnel simulator, the place where new CERN staff learn the safety procedures for underground emergency evacuation.

Prévessin

Come to the LHCb assembly hall to see the particle detectors that the LHCb experiment is making for the next run of data taking in 2021.

Point 8 - LHCb
Point 8 - LHCb

Find out about the new modular data centre that's being built for the upgraded LHCb detector. This facility will house the detector's readout system, which is connected to front-end electronics in the underground cavern via 19 000 optical fibres, and the 2000 or so servers of the "high-level trigger" farm that processes and filters the data coming out of the detector. The data centre uses an indirect free air-cooling system, which has an electric power consumption corresponding to less than 10% of the electric power needed to operate the IT equipment.

Point 8 - LHCb

Back at the surface from your underground visit of the LHCb experiment, see a collection of the particle detectors that make up the experiment.

Point 8 - LHCb
Point 8 - LHCb

Visit the underground LHCb experiment, which studies elementary particles known as heavy quarks to try and spot differences between the behaviour of matter and antimatter. Such studies might help explain why the universe is almost devoid of antimatter.

Point 8 - LHCb
Point 8 - LHCb

Imagine yourself in the role of an LHC operator: observe how particle beams are injected from one accelerator into another and how the beams are kept under control until they collide to produce new particles in the LHC experiments.

Point 4 - LHC

Visit Linear Accelerator 2 (Linac 2), the starting point for the protons used in CERN's experiments. Here, you will learn how the machine creates protons in an ion source and accelerates them for further acceleration in other CERN machines.

Meyrin

Find out about the 86-metre-long linear accelerator that is scheduled to become the source of proton beams for the LHC from 2020, replacing the 37-metre-long Linear Accelerator 2 (Linac 2).

Meyrin

Join us live from the #CERNOpenDays and explore the future with us. For an hour and more, we will show you many exciting activities and discussions with our scientists.

SM18

Discover the Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR), which receives long bunches of ions from Linear Accelerator 3 (Linac 3) and transforms them into short, dense bunches that are suitable for acceleration in the chain of accelerators that feeds the LHC.

Meyrin