Slice of the LHC prototype beam tubes in dipole magnet

A slice of the LHC accelerator prototype beam tubes surrounded by magnets. The LHC will accelerate two proton beams in opposite directions. The high bending and accelerating fields needed can only be reached using superconductors. At very low temperatures superconductors have no electrical resistance and therefore no power loss. The LHC will be the largest superconducting installation ever built, a unique challenge for CERN and its industrial partners. About dipole magnets: There will be 1232 dipole magnets in the LHC, used to guide the particles around the 27 km ring. Dipole magnets must have an extremely uniform field, which means the current flowing in the coils has to be very precisely controlled. Nowhere before has such precision been achieved at such high currents. The temperature is measured to five thousandths of a degree, the current to one part in a million. The current creating the magnetic field will pass through superconducting wires at up to 12 500 amps, about 30 000 times the current flowing in a 100 W light bulb. Because the LHC will accelerate two particle beams moving in opposite directions, it is really two accelerators in one. To keep the machine as compact and economical as possible, two dipole magnets are built into a single housing.