CERN TRIP
On an early February morning, a group of physicists from CLS and CLSG gathered at Gatwick for a 6.15am meet. The final destination was to be the CERN complex in Geneva, Switzerland. A four day visit to the home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) would hopefully enlighten us all in the art of particle physics.
The first day was spent around Geneva, but mostly up Le Salève, a mountain outside town. With snow half way up our shins and still more falling, we all struggled on up a woodland path. Scenic it may have been, but the snow did slightly hinder the visibility. We arrived at CERN later in the evening, after a bus ride and twenty minute walk; this would become the norm - buses and walking.
Day two began with a talk on what CERN does, followed by a tour of the site. This enabled us to see close up LINAC 2 (a linear accelerator) which is used to provide the protons and start the acceleration process, and LEIR - a low energy ion ring - which in a previous life had been used to see and hold the first anti-matter produced since the Big Bang. The super conducting magnets which are used to concentrate and guide the proton beams in the LHC were being prepared in a massive room which we visited later; the scale of the whole project was immense and just the magnets needed a whole warehouse to prepare them. After the tour, we all descended on to the local bowling alley, where Dr Khand displayed such immeasurable skills that he wiped the rest of the competition away in both games.
On the third day, the group was treated to a very special part of the trip. We had been given security clearance to go down into one of the LHC's experiment caverns: CMS - Compact Muon Solenoid. This was an amazing opportunity not now available to the public, especially as we were able to see it in its separate sections while CMS was being serviced. All of the group's members were in awe of the beauty of the machinery, which has been constructed on such a vast scale. The evening was spent in a seminar room, giving our own presentations regarding different aspects of CERN ranging from the LHC, magnets, computer analysis, and CMS. After the panel of esteemed judges (from CLS Mr Jones and Dr Khand, and from CLSG Dr Schmidt) had discussed the outcome for many minutes, the results came in. And everyone was a winner...
And finally, it was time for the return to London. This was a great trip and our thanks go to Mr Jones for his great organisation of the trip, and Dr Khand and Dr Schmidt for their support and help.
Michael Smith S6NOM