Why does the Large Hadron Collider have protons?

The Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful accelerator in the world. It boosts particles, such as protons, which form all the matter we know. These collisions produce massive particles, such as the Higgs boson or the top quark.

How big is the LHC?

The LHC is exactly what its name suggests – a large collider of hadrons (any particle made up of quarks). Strictly, LHC refers to the collider; a machine that deserves to be labelled ‘large’, it not only weighs more than 38,000 tonnes, but runs for 27km (16.5mi) in a circular tunnel 100 metres beneath the ground.

How many kilometers per hour less than the speed of light are the protons moving?

The protons each have an energy of 6.5 TeV, giving a total collision energy of 13 TeV. At this energy, the protons have a Lorentz factor of about 6,930 and move at about 0.999999990 c, or about 3.1 m/s (11 km/h) slower than the speed of light (c).

Can the Large Hadron Collider accelerate protons faster than the speed of light?

I’ve read in numerous places that the Large Hadron Collider is capable of accelerating protons at 0.999999991 c, which mathematically works out to being 3 metres per second slower than the speed of light.

Is it possible to reach $C$ for a proton?

Which goes to infinity as $v$ approaches $c$. Since you can’t supply infinite energy to the proton, reaching $c$ is impossible. You can get close to $c$ as the LHC does but you will never ever reach $c$.

What is the momentum of a proton with velocity $vec v$?

According to Special Relativity, the momentum of a proton with velocity $\\vec v$ is given by: $$\\vec p = \\dfrac{m_p \\vec v}{\\sqrt{1- \\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$$ Carefully note the denominator. As the speed vof the proton gets close to c, the denominator gets close to zero so the momentum increases without bound.

How many TeV collisions does the LHC produce?

Thanks to the work that has been done during the Long Shutdown 1, the LHC will now be able to produce 13 TeV collisions (6.5 TeV per beam), which will allow physicists to further explore the nature of our Universe. How long will the LHC run?