Harvest of Run 1 Thomas Schörner-Sadenius Editor
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Thomas Schörner-Sadenius Editor Harvest of Run 1 The Large Hadron Collider Thomas Schörner-Sadenius Editor The Large Hadron Collider Harvest of Run 1 123 Editor Thomas Schörner-Sadenius Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) Hamburg Germany ISBN 978-3-319-15000-0 ISBN 978-3-319-15001-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-15001-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015933362 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover art: Jorge Cham—www.phdcomics.com Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword The Large Hadron Collider is the largest scientific experiment mankind ever devised, and already the first period of data-taking was a tremendous success. The accelerator, detector and computing Grid performance surpassed all expecta- tions. Only 4 years after the start-up the first major milestone was reached: Everybody who witnessed the discovery of a Higgs boson, the messenger of the Brout–Englert–Higgs field, in the year 2012 and appreciates the importance of its existence will certainly agree. The 2013 Nobel Prize in physics to Francois Englert and Peter Higgs is a testimony to this breakthrough result. This discovery and many other outstanding achievements of the LHC raise great hopes: The imminent restart of the physics programme in 2015 will increase the sensitivity by an order of magnitude while pushing the energy frontier to unprecedented values. We are looking forward to unravelling new mysteries that the universe may have in store for us. Technologically, the LHC was—and continues to be—a significant challenge, demanding numerous innovations and breakthroughs in areas so diverse as magnet development, detector sensitivity and robustness, and large-scale computing—to mention only a few. So far, these challenges have been well met, thanks to the ingenuity and perseverance of the staff at CERN and at the many other institutions around the world involved in the realisation of the LHC and its detectors. The LHC is not only a scientific and technological success: Rarely before has a scientific endeavour raised so much public interest and has received so much attention in the media. The LHC fascinates the young and the old alike, and it increases the awareness for scientific and technical questions. The public at large is convinced of the importance—and the rewards—of fundamental research for today’s societies. It is my particular pleasure to see that it attracts pupils and students to get involved with the natural sciences, a prerequisite to providing a next generation of well-educated and responsible experts that can tackle the demanding problems the twenty-first century will bring along. v vi Foreword Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the LHC is a political triumph. It is a truly global endeavour, supported by thousands of scientists, engineers and tech- nicians from all over the world who work on a common project based, to a large extent, on a shared vision and driven by curiosity and enthusiasm. The LHC bridges cultural and political boundaries and economic disparities, and it shows what can be achieved when human minds are driven by a common goal. The collaborative spirit of the LHC is unparalleled. Last year, 2014, CERN turned 60. Sixty years, during which CERN has always managed to enthral scientists and non-scientists alike. Today, more than ever, CERN is a truly global laboratory, with now 21 member states reaching beyond Europe and a significant number of associate and observer states or applicants (Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and others). These countries form an impressive global network of scientific spirit, which is an ideal basis for scientific success and progress, and which indirectly fosters understanding and peace among all nationalities involved. Science can and should be a prime example for world- wide coexistence and cooperation and may serve as a stronghold in international development. The LHC may still be in its infancy—but the long shutdown that will soon come to an end constituted a significant milestone. This book tries to compile the essence of our knowledge gained or corroborated at the LHC at this specific point in time, and to present it in a way that keeps its value independent of newer and still more exiting results rolling in. I am confident that young and also more senior physicists will find it an educating and fascinating reading. Geneva Rolf-Dieter Heuer Preface Early in 2013, shortly after the beginning of the first long LHC shutdown and after the discovery of a Higgs-like particle, there seemed to be a common desire to take stock of the scientific harvest of Run 1 and to aim for a modest extrapolation into the future. It was clear from the start that such a summary could only be a snapshot—in spite of its size, inertia is small at CERN and discussions are moving fast at the LHC—and that most results presented would very quickly be “outdated” after their publication—at the latest once first results from Run 2 would start to appear. We—the authors and the editor—therefore decided to take a slightly relaxed view, concentrating on the impact of the LHC for its main fields of investigation, on the most striking results of Run 1, and on the basic methods and techniques that were used to achieve the latter—methods and techniques that were independent of time and would still be in use for later data-taking periods. All this should be presented in a modestly pedagogical way, taking a slightly historical perspective (e.g. by comparing LHC achievements with results achieved previously at the Tevatron or elsewhere), and garnishing everything with the relevant references. We hoped that a few “text book” results could also be included, and time will show. In short, we wanted to write a book that was comprehensive, easy and fun to read, and useful both for younger scientists with a wish to familiarise them with certain aspects of LHC physics and for more senior physicists who were looking for an overview on specific topics or for a rather complete set of references. It is now up to the reader to decide whether or not we succeeded with this ambitious goal. The structure of the book is as follows: A first part, consisting of Chaps. 1–3, describes the basics of the LHC: The first chapter—“The Large Hadron Collider— Background and History”—discusses the motivation for and the genesis of the LHC project. It also sketches the history of proton–proton (or proton–antiproton) collider physics and the relevant predecessor machines and projects, and it gives an over- view of the LHC financing and of the history of the experimental LHC collabo- rations. The second chapter—“A Journey to the Heart of the LHC”—presents the technical side of the LHC construction, commissioning and operation. The third chapter—“The LHC Detectors”—discusses the involved technologies and the performances of the main LHC experiments. vii viii Preface The following Chaps. 4–11 cover the main physics topics at the LHC, from the well-established (the electroweak Standard Model and QCD, Higgs physics, top, flavour and heavy-ion physics) to the more speculative (searches for supersymmetry and searches for other, more exotic physics beyond the Standard Model). The book concludes with an outlook chapter—“Perspectives on the Energy Frontier”—that tries to bundle the conclusions of all other chapters and to translate them into a look into the future of our field of high energy physics. A few technical remarks: We tried to be as consistent in the notation throughout the whole book as possible—failure to achieve this is entirely due to the editor, as are all other shortcomings and mistakes that might have escaped the editing and proofreading process (please send any errors you find to thomas.schoerner@desy. de). Sticking to the guidelines set by the LHC experimental collaborations, and in order to prepare a book which presents final results that will not be obsolete tomorrow, we decided to only use published and publicly available results as references. This rule has only been violated in very few, well-motived places, e.g. in cases where journal publications do not exist and are also not foreseen. Throughout the book, the convention h ¼ c ¼ 1 is used. Writing a book like the present one is a major challenge, and it involves the engagement and goodwill of many people who deserve deepest appreciation and gratefulness. First and foremost, I would like to thank all authors who—despite their numerous other demanding commitments and responsibilities—have shown great enthusiasm and a strong will to endure the inconveniences imposed upon them by their editor until the end of the project.