‘The arrival of thismagnet from Brookhaven marks a new era in international collaboration inparticle physics,’ said CERN Director General Luciano Maiani. ‘TheLHC is the first truly global collaboration in particle physics, and thismagnet joins a steadily growing stream of LHC components arriving from aroundthe world – a tangible demonstration of people of all kinds workingtogether towards a common goal.’
The LHC is made up of morethan 6,000 superconducting magnets, which are built in Europe. The U. S.contributed $531 million to the LHC, and the LHC’s interaction regiondipole magnets were built at Brookhaven as well.
‘I congratulate theBrookhaven team on this milestone for international collaboration in scientificresearch,’ said Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, Director of the Department ofEnergy’s Office of Science, which funds the U.S. LHC magnet contributions.’It is tangible evidence of the successful fulfillment of the commitmentwe have made to provide advanced U.S. magnet technology and acceleratorexpertise for the next step in worldwide particle physics research at theenergy frontier. And it is exciting to be a party to the future accomplishmentsof the LHC.’
The magnet weighs twenty-fivetons, and Brookhaven will provide at least twenty more. It took nine months tomake, and over one-hundred scientists, engineers, and technicians worked on themassive project. Brookhaven’s Superconducting Magnet Division is now buildingthe remaining 19 magnets, which will be shipped to CERN later this year.
Two other nationallaboratories were involved in the project, the Fermi National AcceleratorLaboratory and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Together, the labsare producing eighteen quadrupole magnets, superconductor cables, and utilityboxes for magnet assembly.
‘Our colleagues atBrookhaven have done a splendid job, producing the first U.S.-builtsuperconducting magnet for the LHC project in time and according tospecification,’ said LHC project leader Lyn Evans. ‘This will soon befollowed by further deliveries from Brookhaven as well as from Fermilab andLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, all actively participating in the LHCdesign and construction. This constitutes a major step forward in internationalcollaboration in the construction and exploitation of large facilities forparticle physics research.’
Jim Strait, a physicist atthe Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, hailed the collaborative nature ofthe project and its enormous success. The LHC will be put to use in April2007, and will begin to search for frontiers not yet explored in mattertechnology.
