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LHC@home is a distributed computing project using the BOINC framework, run by CERN in Switzerland. It is considered an effort to help build the Large Hadron Collider, a CERN project to create a large particle accelerator which will become active in 2008.
[edit] A CERN collider project
The project was first introduced as a beta on September 1, 2004 and a record 1000 users signed up within 24 hours. The project went public, with a 5000 user limit, on September 29 to commemorate CERN's 50th anniversary. Currently there is no user limit and qualification.
[edit] Project software
The project software involves a program called "SixTrack", created by Frank Schmidt, downloaded via BOINC onto participant computers running Windows or Linux. SixTrack simulates particles accelerating through the 27 km (17 mile)-long LHC to find their orbit stability.
- In one workunit, 60 particles are simulated travelling 100,000 or 1,000,000 loops, which would take about 10 seconds in an actual run.
- The orbit stability data is used to detect if a particle in orbit goes off-course and runs into the tube wall — if this happened too often in actual running, this would cause damage to the accelerator which would need repairs.
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