Our next stop on the tour was the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, a 20 minute drive away on the opposite side of the LHC ring. There are four main experiments on the LHC ring, of which CMS is one. CMS and it’s rival ATLAS are the two searching for the Higgs. Both work in different ways, so they can test each other’s results.

CMS is 100 metres below ground level. On the surface is a large warehouse building, a smaller office block and some support systems. One of these systems offers rapid heat dissipation for the magnets below in case of a sudden shutdown or failure.

CMS was built on the surface in the hanger above it’s intended location. It was then lowered in slices down a shaft by the gantry crane to the cavern below. The shaft is now covered by a concrete slab, and of course I stood on it.

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