Photo: Martial Trezzini / EPA / TASS
This was announced in an official statement from CERN. After the upgrade, the collider is set to continue operating in a new configuration—the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC)—which is designed to generate a significantly larger volume of experimental data.
“The Large Hadron Collider has exceeded all expectations. For nearly two decades, it has transformed our understanding of the universe and inspired generations of scientists, engineers, and citizens around the world. Today we say goodbye to the LHC as we have known it,” said Oliver Bruning, CERN’s Director of Accelerators and Technologies, as quoted in the organization’s statement.
The project is being carried out by CERN in collaboration with international scientific organizations and research centers. Dozens of institutions from various countries are participating in the upgrade program.
What Will Change After the LHC Upgrade
The main goal of the High-Luminosity LHC project is to increase the accelerator’s so-called luminosity—that is, the number of particle collisions the facility can produce over a given period of time.
This will allow scientists to make more precise measurements of the properties of elementary particles, investigate the mechanism of particle mass formation in greater depth, and search for possible new phenomena beyond the current physical model.
As part of the upgrade, key components of the complex will be modernized, including the magnet systems, the accelerator infrastructure, detector equipment, and computing power for data processing.
The modernization of the Large Hadron Collider is one of CERN’s largest projects in recent years. According to industry estimates, the cost of the High-Luminosity LHC program will amount to at least 1.2 billion Swiss francs.
The project is funded through CERN’s international collaboration. CERN’s member states play a key role through regular contributions, as well as special financial and technological contributions from individual countries and scientific institutions.
Research organizations from Europe, the United States, Japan, Canada, China, and other countries are participating in the project. This funding model reflects the scale of the project: modernizing the accelerator requires not only the construction of new components but also the development of technologies in the fields of superconductors, precision engineering, electronics, and big data processing.
The Large Hadron Collider remains one of the largest international scientific projects of the 21st century. Its modernization demonstrates that major research in fundamental science requires long-term investment, international cooperation, and the development of an entire range of high-tech industries.
