Large Hadron Collider at CERN: Beams generating high-energy-density matter

This paper presents numerical simulations that have been carried out to study the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic responses of a solid copper cylindrical target that is facially irradiated along the axis by one of the two Large Hadron Collider (LHC) 7 TeV/ c proton beams. The energy deposition by protons in solid copper has been calculated using an established particle interaction and Monte Carlo code, FLUKA, which is capable of simulating all components of the particle cascades in matter, up to multi-TeV energies. These data have been used as input to a sophisticated two-dimensional hydrodynamic computer code BIG2 that has been employed to study this problem. The prime purpose of these investigations was to assess the damage caused to the equipment if the entire LHC beam is lost at a single place. The FLUKA calculations show that the energy of protons will be deposited in solid copper within about 1 m assuming constant material parameters. Nevertheless, our hydrodynamic simulations have shown that the energy deposition region will extend to a length of about 35 m over the beam duration. This is due to the fact that first few tens of bunches deposit sufficient energy that leads to high pressure that generates an outgoing radial shock wave. Shock propagation leads to continuous reduction in the density at the target center that allows the protons delivered in subsequent bunches to penetrate deeper and deeper into the target. This phenomenon has also been seen in case of heavy-ion heated targets. This effect needs to be considered in the design of a sacrificial beam stopper. These simulations have also shown that the target is severely damaged and is converted into a huge sample of high-energy density (HED) matter. In fact, the inner part of the target is transformed into a strongly coupled plasma with fairly uniform physical conditions. This work, therefore, has suggested an additional very important application of the LHC, namely, studies of HED states in matter.