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Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry, Volume 45 LEP – The Lord of the Collider Rings at CERN 1980–2000 Herwig Schopper LEP – The Lord of the Collider Rings at CERN 1980–2000 The Making, Operation and Legacy of the World’s Largest Scientific Instrument With a Foreword bei Rolf-Dieter Heuer 123 Prof. Dr. Herwig Schopper CERN 1211 Gen`eve 23 Switzerland [email protected] ISBN 978-3-540-89300-4 e-ISBN 978-3-540-89301-1 DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-89301-1 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009920206 c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, 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. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword Which better year than 2009 to publish a book describing the history of LEP? At the time of writing these lines the LEP experiments are going to publish their last scientific papers eight years after the end of data taking and more than thirty years after the first studies for a large electron-positron collider which eventually became LEP. It is now the right time to look back how everything has started and how this scientific project made its way so successfully from its birth to its last, scientifically dramatic years. And who else would be better placed to write the story, and not only the history, of LEP than Professor Herwig Schopper, Director General of CERN from 1981 to 1988, who not only obtained the approval of LEP but also brought its construction to a successful end during his term of office. With all his insights into the scientific, technical, political, financial and managerial aspects and chal- lenges of such an endeavour he does not forget the human aspects; and the personal recollections and anecdotes expressed by the author help to understand the reader what it means to carry such a project through. Without LEP, we would not have the same knowledge of particle physics to day: LEP has had a strong impact on the experimental ‘discovery’ of the Standard Model. But LEP has not only pushed the frontier of knowledge, it also advanced the frontier of technology, of computing and of worldwide collaboration. This book is also a reminder to everybody about the duration of our projects, about the stability needed to carry them through, but also about the excitement they give to us! The exciting times of LEP which shaped generations of physicists, are over – but more are ahead of us with the turn-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). LEP has been making way for this new global project of particle physics at CERN, which will push further ahead our knowledge of the microcosm and of the early universe. But LEP will live on in physics text books and as a model for international collaboration beyond all political boundaries. As stated by the author, with LEP and its international exploitation, CERN has become a laboratory serving the worldwide community of elementary particle physicists. This book addresses the specialists as well as the interested public, you don’t have to know particle physics but you will learn much. Enjoy reading as much as I did. CERN, February 2009 Rolf-Dieter Heuer Director-General CERN v Prologue Sometimes the Large Electron–Positron Collider (LEP) and its successor in the same tunnel, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is scheduled to become fully operational in 2009, are compared to cathedrals built in the Middle Ages. They have some aspects in common, such as belonging to the largest objects created by man, requiring a considerable collective effort, applying the most advanced techniques available at their time and devouring a large fraction of the GNP. They expressed in many respects the spirit of their age, although certainly some people considered them as useless from a practical point of view. Hence, it may be of interest to permit a glance behind the scenes of the making of LEP, the largest scientific instrument built by man. This is not a report written by a historian, but rather by somebody who was directly involved in the realization of this spectacular project at a crucial position. I am also sufficiently old that I do not have to care too much about personal sen- sitivities, but rather can tell the ‘truth’! Historians base their findings mainly on documents or interviews. My experience is that this does not give a full history of the motivations, difficulties and personal involvements. Indeed, the real decisions are mostly not taken during official meetings, but in coffee breaks, at dinners, in the corridors or during telephone calls. When a group of historians was charged with writing the story of the foundation of CERN, their leader came to see me one day and announced that they wanted to base their report only on documents, since in some interviews with the founding fathers of CERN they recognized that the old gentlemen had fading memories partly contradicting each other. My advice was that they should immediately return to listen to the oral tales since in my mind the contradictions had nothing to do with forgetfulness but rather with different points of view. The accounts of participants at a meeting from the previous day would also be contradictory. On this occasion I realized how difficult it is to write an unbiased historical report. About 20 years have passed since the building of LEP. I did not write the history of LEP earlier since I have been very busy with other activities1 and hence my 1 President of the German and European Physical Society, consultant to UNESCO, President of SESAME Council and others. vii viii Prologue time was limited in spite of my being formerly retired. Because of the time that has elapsed, some recollections might have become somewhat distorted in my memory and I apologise for any omissions or mistakes which might have crept into my story. On the other hand, some detachment seemed useful to have a less biased view, and some information that was confidential at the time of the construction of LEP can now be made public. In addition, the final analysis of LEP experiments came to an end only recently, thus permitting a full evaluation of the impact of LEP on particle physics. Finally what we called phase LEP 3 (now called the LHC) started operation in 2008. When the parameters of the LEP tunnel were chosen, the choice was made with the view of a hadron collider being in the same tunnel. This vision is becoming a reality now and thus LEP is part of the early history of the LHC. Sometimes it was also amusing to see that some of the problems which we experienced with LEP appeared again with the LHC, but had been forgotten in the meantime. A project such as LEP has many different aspects, technical, scientific, manage- rial and political, and human problems are always a major part of any history. I have tried to cover all those aspects to give a complete picture. Therefore, most readers will not read this book from the first page to the last, but they will rather select those chapters which preferentially raise their interest. But I hope they might come back and try those parts which are somewhat more remote from their usual background. Why was this book written at all? This less formal but hopefully informative source of the history of LEP will provide some information which otherwise might be lost, although this account is not intended to replace a professional report by historians. More importantly LEP (and including its last phase, the LHC), the largest facility for basic research ever built by humankind, has become a kind of symbol for the efforts humanity is prepared to make to explore fundamental questions related to understanding for the basis of human existence and our view of the world. One of the frontiers of our knowledge concerns the infinitely small and with LEP we could penetrate deeper into the structure of the microcosm. The other rim of knowledge concerns the opposite, the infinitely large, the universe. Recently the study of the infinitely small and that of the infinitely large have become intimately intertwined – a most fascinating development. Of course, a detailed description of this topic is not the objective of this book,2 although some indications will be given. LEP has proven that Europe can become a worldwide leader in science and tech- nology when efforts are combined. Finally, the realization and exploitation of LEP involved scientists and engineers, administrators and politicians from countries with different traditions, mentalities, religions and political systems. Cooperating closely together has proven that science can be a tool for creating better understanding and building of mutual trust in the spirit of the UNESCO slogan ‘Science for Peace’, one of the main objectives implemented at CERN right from its foundation.
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