Story of a journey: Rutherford to the Large Hadron Collider and onwards

TL;DR

This paper discusses the historical development of particle accelerators leading to the Large Hadron Collider, emphasizing its significance as a watershed moment in particle physics and outlining its physics goals and timeline.

Contribution

It provides a historical perspective linking accelerator development to advances in particle physics and explains the design decisions and future physics agenda of the LHC.

Findings

LHC represents a pivotal point in particle physics history.

Design choices for the LHC were based on previous knowledge and goals.

The paper outlines the timeline and physics objectives of the LHC.

Abstract

In this article, I set out arguments why the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) : the machine and the experiments with it, are a watershed for particle physics. I give a historical perspective of the essential link between development of particle accelerators and that in our knowledge of the laws governing interactions among the fundamental particles, showing how this journey has reached destination LHC. I explain how the decisions for the LHC design; the energy and number of particles in the beam, were arrived at. I will end by discussing the LHC physics agenda and the time line in which the particle physicists hope to achieve it.