Year: 2026
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the latest and most powerful particle accelerator for studying the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). With its very high center-of-mass energy, it offers a unique environment where both extreme energy densities and temperatures can be reached and rare, high-mass particles to probe the QGP are copiously produced. Four main experiments, ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb, study the QGP properties, each bringing distinct capabilities. ALICE was designed for the heavy-ion physics program from the outset, with efficient tracking down to the lowest transverse momenta and a full array of particle identification detectors. ATLAS and CMS, originally designed to focus primarily on high-energy proton-proton collisions, also participate in heavy-ion runs and provide large acceptance and hermetic calorimetry, enabling measurements out to very high transverse momentum. LHCb, with its forward detector geometry, explores QGP and nuclear effects in previously-inaccessible rapidity regions. Ongoing upgrades and future high-luminosity runs are planned to deepen our understanding of the QGP and QCD under extreme conditions.
Source: History of physics
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: CERN
OpenAlex ID: W7213951291