The Large Hadron Collider : The Big Bang Machine

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, which will start its operation end of 2009, is one of the largest and most complex scientific instruments ever built by mankind. The LHC will produce head-on collisions of protons from the two beams that circulate in opposite directions with each an energy of the protons of 3.5 TeV initially and 5 TeV later in 2010. In these collisions energy is converted into matter and we expect to produce and see for the first time new heavy particles which have livedonly very shortly after the Big Bang.

This presentation will discuss the status of the LHC and its main experiments, its schedule of expected operation in the near future, and its physics program. The 
huge experimental challenges will be presented and a several  highlights of the physics program will be discussed in more detail. These include the search for the Higgs particle, the search for a Supersymmetric world and  the search for Extra Space Time Dimensions.

The findings at the LHC experiment may well create a revolution in our understanding of the elementary building blocks of matter and the forces that rule them.