Measurement and quality control of a new generation of particle accelerator and detectors: Geological and thermal influence on the particle beam position

At CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva, Switzerland) the most powerful particle collider in the world is under construction. It will be the first time that an accelerator with a diameter of 9 km runs totally on superconducting magnets. Because of the large size of this machine, the influence of the movement from the plate tectonic is not negligible for the alignment of the magnets. Another negative influence on the precision of the centre of the magnetic field is the warping of the magnet caused by the thermal contraction during the cooling down process from room temperature to the operating temperature of 1.9 K.