The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is an accelerator which will bring protons into head-on collision at higher energies (14 TeV) than ever achieved before to allow scientists to penetrate still further into the structure of matter and recreate the conditions prevailing in the Universe just 10**-12 seconds after the "Big Bang" when the temperature was 10**16 degrees. The accelerator will produce not only higher energy but also a higher luminosity - the probability of collision between particles - than has been achieved before and it will reveal the behaviour of fundamental particles of matter which has never been studied.
Two detectors, ATLAS and CMS, which will record the interactions created by colliding proton beams at an energy of up to 14 TeV, are already at an advanced stage of development. However the LHC will not be limited to the study of proton-proton collisions, the LHC can also collide heavy ions, such as lead, to produce a total energy of 1148 TeV. A large energy density can be obtained over a wide enough region in the collisions to cause phase transition of nuclear matter into quark-gluon plasma. Studies of such a state of matter are expected to yield important new results. Proton-proton collisions at the LHC will be a copious source of B-mesons. The study of the decay of these mesons will allow physicists a deeper examination of CP-violation and a tailor-made B-physics detector is under development for LHC. At a later stage, proton beams from LHC can also be made to collide with electron beams from LEP opening up another field of research. This wide range of physics possibilities will enable LHC to retain its unique place on the frontiers of physics research well into the next century.
The building of the LHC and its detectors is a challenge to both European scientists and European industry. New projects pose new problems, with solutions at and often beyond the leading edge of contemporary technology. Many companies are already partnering CERN in research and development to build the LHC machine and its particle detectors. European industry faces stimulating challenges in many fields, for example, superconductivity, ultra high vacuum, ultra low temperatures, unprecedented data rates.