LHC un defi technologique sans precedent

This article presents the future LHC (large hadron collider) in simple terms and gives some details concerning radiation detectors and supra-conducting magnets. LHC will take the place of the LEP inside the 27 km long underground tunnel near Geneva and is scheduled to operate in 2007. 8 years after its official launching the LHC project has piled up 2 year delay and has exceeded its initial budget (2 milliard euros) by 18%. Technological challenges and design difficulties are the main causes of these shifts. The first challenge has been carried out successfully, it was the complete clearing out of the LEP installation. In order to release 14 TeV in each proton-proton collision, powerful magnetic fields (8,33 Tesla) are necessary. 1248 supra-conducting 15 m-long bipolar magnets have to be built. 30% of the worldwide production of niobium-titanium wires will be used each year for 5 years in the design of these coils. The global cryogenic system will be gigantic and will use 94 tons of helium. 4 radiation detectors are being built: ATLAS (a toroidal LHC apparatus), CMS (compact muon solenoid), ALICE (a large ion collider experiment) and LHC-b (large hadron collider beauty). The 2 first will search after the Higgs boson, ALICE will be dedicated to the study of the quark-gluon plasma and LHC-b will gather data on the imbalance between matter and anti-matter. (A.C.)