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The pulse of a particle accelerator. 128 of these radio frequency cavities were positioned around CERN's 27-kilometre LEP ring to accelerate electrons and positrons. The acceleration was produced by microwave electric oscillations at 352 MHz. The electrons and positrons were grouped into bunches, like beads on a string, and the copper sphere at the top stored the microwave energy between the passage of individual bunches. This made for valuable energy savings as it reduced the heat generated in the cavity.

The pulse of a particle accelerator. 128 of these radio frequency cavities were positioned around CERN's 27-kilometre LEP ring to accelerate electrons and positrons. The acceleration was produced by microwave electric oscillations at 352 MHz. The electrons and positrons were grouped into bunches, like beads on a string, and the copper sphere at the top stored the microwave energy between the passage of individual bunches. This made for valuable energy savings as it reduced the heat generated in the cavity.

With its 27-kilometre circumference, the Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider was the largest electron-positron accelerator ever built. The excavation of the LEP tunnel was Europe’s largest civil-engineering project prior to the Channel Tunnel. Three tunnel-boring machines started excavating the tunnel in February 1985 and the ring was completed three years later. In its first phase of operation, LEP consisted of 5176 magnets and 128 accelerating cavities. CERN’s accelerator complex provided the particles and four enormous detectors, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, observed the collisions. LEP was commissioned in July 1989 and the first beam circulated in the collider on 14 July. The collider's initial energy was chosen to be around 91 GeV, so that Z bosons could be produced. The Z boson and its charged partner the W boson, both discovered at CERN in 1983, are responsible for the weak force, which drives the Sun, for example. Observing the creation and decay of the short-lived Z boson was a critical test of the Standard Model. In the seven years that LEP operated at around 100 GeV it produced around 17 million Z particles. In 1995 LEP was upgraded for a second operation phase, with as many as 288 superconducting accelerating cavities added to double the energy so that the collisions could produce pairs of W bosons. The collider's energy eventually topped 209 GeV in 2000. This object is one of the superconducting cavities from this epoch.

Model of the LEP tunnel as it is in the 1990's. LEP(Large Electron Positron collider) was the world biggest accelerator.

Model of the LEP tunnel as it is in the 1990's. LEP(Large Electron Positron collider) was the world biggest accelerator.