Identity Statement | Context | Content and Structure | Conditions of access and use | Description control | Database
Conditions of access and use [Top]
Conditions governing access
See file level description and the CERN operational circular No 3: rules applicable to archival material and archiving at CERN. In general, records on any subject that are over 30 years old, and all records of a purely scientific nature, may be consulted.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright is retained by CERN, no reproduction without permission.
Language / scripts of material
Most of the material is written in English or French.
Finding aids
Listed to file level in the CERN Archives Database.
Content & Structure [Top]
Scope and content
The Large Electron Positron Collider, LEP, is a particle accelerator built inside a circular tunnel 27km round and buried 100 metres underground. At four points around the accelerator, huge detectors called ALEPH (Apparatus for LEp PHysics), DELPHI (DEtector with Lepton, Photon and Hadron Identification), L3 and OPAL (Omni Purpose Apparatus for Lep) studied what happened when electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, collided at high energy.
- ALEPH (Apparatus for LEP pHysics) was a solid-state microstrip detector and the simplest of the detectors : it had a minimum of components and emphasized performance and reliability. It was installed closest to the collision region to give information on very short-lived particles.
- DELPHI (DEtector with Lepton Photon and Hadron Identification), ready in 1989-1990, was a special detector used to identity leptons, photons and hadrons. It incorporates a technology which had never been used on a large scale.
- L3 (which drew its name from being the subject of the third letter of intent for a LEP experiment) was the largest of the detectors and was distinguished by having its magnet on the outside of the detector volume. It aimed for great accuracy in many of its measurements on the particles emerging from the collisions.
- OPAL (Omni-Purpose Apparatus for LEP) was a classic polyvalent detector. Commissioned in 1989, it used tested detector techniques.
LEP was switched on in the summer of 1989. For six years, its job was to produce Z particles, carriers of one of nature's fundamental forces. The Z was first discovered in a Nobel Prize (link is external) winning CERN experiment in 1983. Z particles had been made at LEP when electrons and positrons collided with enough energy to provide their mass, around 91 GeV.
- LEP5 – BREMS : A Single Bremsstrahlung Monitor to Measure Luminosity at LEP
- LEP6 – MODAL : The search for Highly Ionizing Particles in e+e- collisions at LEP using (MODAL) (MOnopole Detector At Lep)
In 1995, LEP's Z era came to an end, the machine moved up a gear to 140 GeV ready for LEP's second phase which pushed the energy to over 190 GeV before the end of the decade. Known as LEP2, this second phase of LEP was to produce and study W particles, companions of the Z, which were also discovered at CERN in 1983.
LEP stopped in November 2000, but the analysis of data is still going on, with the possibility of discovering new physics phenomena.
It was dismantled in 2001 to give way to the Large Hadron Collider LHC.
LEP collection contains minutes of LPC (LEP Project Committee), LMAC ( LEP Machine Advisory Committee), MARTEC (Main Ring Technical Committee), Group Leader's meetings, LEP Management Board (LMB), reports and notes.
| Spokespersons of ALEPH experiment Approved on 18 November 1982 – Finished 21 March 2014 | |
|---|---|
| Jack Steinberger | From 1983 to February 1990 |
| Jacques Lefrançois | From March 1990 to 1993 |
| Lorenzo Foà | From 1993 to 1994 |
| Luigi Rolandi | From 1994 to 1997 |
| John Peter Dornan | From 1997 to March 2000 |
| Wolf-Dieter Schlater | From April 2000 to March 2001 |
| Roberto Tenchini | From April 2001 to 2014 |
| Spokespersons of DELPHI experiment Approved on 18 November 1982 | |
|---|---|
| Ugo Amaldi | From 1983 to 1993 |
| Jean-Etudes Augustin | From 1994 to 1995 |
| Daniel Treille | From 1996 to 1998 |
| Walter Anton (Wilbur) Venus | From November 1998 to 1999 |
| Tiziano Camporesi | From 2000 to February 2002 |
| Jan Timmermans | From February 2002 to present |
| Spokespersons of L3 experiment Approved on 18 November 1982 – Finished on 2 November 2010 | |
|---|---|
| Samuel Ting | From 1983 to 2010 |
| Hans Hofer | From April 1999 to 2010 |
| Spokespersons of OPAL experiment Approved on 18 November 1982 – Finished on 2 November 2010 | |
|---|---|
| Aldo Michelini | From 1983 to 1995 |
| Rolf Heuer | From 1994 to August 1998 |
| David Plane | From September 1996 to 2010 |
| Spokespersons of BREMS experiment Approved on 6 April 1989 – Finished on 6 April 1999 | |
|---|---|
| Giordano Diambrini-Palazzi | From 1989 to 1999 |
| Spokespersons of MODAL experiment Approved on 27 September 1989 – Finished on 18 February 2002 | |
|---|---|
| James Pinfold | From 1989 to 2002 |
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Nothing was destroyed.
Accruals
Further accruals may be received.
System of arrangement
The original order has been preserved. For the purposes of cataloguing the files have been described according to the following plan:
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-1-01 | Administration and general |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-1-02 | Safety |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-1-03 | LEP Committees and Working Groups |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-1-04 | LEP Reports and notes |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-1-05 | LEP experiments Committee (LEPC) and LEP experiments |
For the purposes of cataloguing the files have been described according to the following plan:
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-01 | Specifications |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-02 | Notes and Internal notes |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-03 | Meetings |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-04 | Files of Emilio Picasso – LEP Project Director (1981-1989) |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-05 | Files of Günther Plass – Deputy to LEP Project leader (1981-1989), LEP Division leader (1983-1989), Director of Accelerators (1990-1993) |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-06 | Files of Manfred Buhler-Broglin – Administrateur du projet LHC,Chargé par le Directeur-Général de la procédure DUP (Déclaration d'Utilité Publique) |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-07 | Files of Pierre C. Troendle – Service of Local Affairs |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-08 | Files of L. Gignoux – – Service of Local Affairs for the LEP Project |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-09 | Files of Robert Lévy-Mandel – Assistant to LEP Project Leader on questions of security |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-10 | Files of Oscar Barbalat – Group leader of Industry and Technology Liaison Office (ITLO),1992-1997 |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-11 | Files of Kurt Hübner – Director of Accelerators (1994-2001) |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-12 | Files of Carlo Wyss – Deputy for the LEP200 project |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-13 | Files of F. Ferger and Stuart Turner |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-14 | Files of Alain Brissonnaud |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-15 | Permis de construire, DUP, Etude d'impact, Etude géologique, … |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-16 | Arbitrage CERN – EUROLEP |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-17 | Photos |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-18 | Magnets measurements |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-19 | Chrono |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-20 | Files of LEP Secretariat |
| CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-21 | LEP Fest – 9-11 October 2000 |
Context [Top]
Name of creator
Large Electron Positron Collider Division, LEP
Administrative
- 1976 : Start of LEP design studies
- 1978 : First practical design was published
- 1981 : Council approved construction for an initial operating energy of 50 GeV per beam; Emilio Picasso named as LEP Project Director until 1989
- 1983 : Ground-breaking ceremony for LEP; G. Plass named as LEP Division Leader until 1989
- 1989 : Inauguration of LEP
- 1990 : G. Plass named as Director of Accelerators, and L. R. Evans became SL (LEP+SPS) Division Leader
- 1994 : K. H. Kissler became the new SL (LEP+SPS) Division leader
- 1996 : LEP energy is increased to allow production of pairs of W particles (140 GeV)
- 2000 : LEP accelerator, achieving a collision energy of 209 GeV, closed in November. S. Myers became the new SL (LEP+SPS) Division leader until 2002.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Roger Calder in July 1993 and the Libray in 2004
Description control [Top]
Archivist's note
Description prepared by Maryse Moskofian
Date(s) of description
Geneva, the 10th September 2003, Revised 2007, 2017, 2026
Identity Statement [Top]
Reference code(s)
CERN-ARCH-LEP-1-01-001 to CERN-ARCH-LEP-1-05-025
CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-01-001 to CERN-ARCH-LEP-2-20-004
Title
Archives of Large Electron Positron Collider Division and Committee, LEP and LEPC
Date(s)
1978 – 2008
Level of description
Sub-fonds
Extent of the unit of description
73 Boxes, 129 items, 8 linear metres (1st accession)
396 Boxes, 791 items, 44 linear metres (2nd accession)