The Large Hadron Collider: lessons learned and summary

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) machine and detectors are now working superbly. There are good reasons to hope and expect that the new domain that the LHC is already exploring, operating at 7 TeV with a luminosity of 1033 cm−2 s−1, or the much bigger domain that will be opened up as the luminosity increases to over 1034 and the energy to 14 TeV, will provide clues that will usher in a new era in particle physics. The arguments that new phenomena will be found in the energy range that will be explored by the LHC have become stronger since they were first seriously analysed in 1984, although their essence has changed little. I will review the evolution of these arguments in a historical context, the development of the LHC project since 1984, and the outlook in the light of reports on the performance of the machine and detectors presented at this meeting.