LHC Cooling Tech

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a major scientific facility at the France-Switzerland border, is undergoing an upgrade to achieve more precise measurements of subatomic particles. This involves cooling experiments to extremely low temperatures, utilizing heat exchangers originally developed for supermarket fridges. These heat exchangers, employing carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, are crucial for reducing noise in the LHC’s Atlas experiment. Remarkably, this research relies on technology also used in refrigeration, with temperatures reaching -45°C (-49°F) in certain areas. Furthermore, other parts of the LHC maintain temperatures as low as 1.9 Kelvin (-271°C/-456F) using helium and dilution refrigeration, a technique vital for quantum computing and studying the early Universe.