Prof. David Evans, University of Birmingham

Abstract: The 27km Large Hadron Collider (LHC), situated 100 metres under the Swiss-French border at CERN near Geneva, is the World's most powerful particle accelerator. In the LHC, protons (hydrogen nuclei) are smashed together at 0.999999991 times the speed of light recreating, for a tiny instant, the violent particle collisions which would have existed less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang. For about four weeks a year, lead nuclei are accelerated and collided in the LHC producing the highest temperatures and densities ever made in an experiment and recreating the exotic primordial soup which existed at the birth of our Universe. Professor David Evans, from the University of Birmingham, will explain some of the physics behind the LHC and why it was built.

Notes: Tea and coffee will be available in the Lennard Jones Foyer from 6.30p.m. Talks start at 7.30pm and are followed by Q&A. These talks, which are FREE to attend and open to the public, are sponsored by the West Midlands Branch of the IoP. There is ample car parking space on campus, which is free during the evening.

FREE to attend

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