What does it mean when the LHC says a beam has X teraelectronvolts?

[lederhosen]

Ok when they say things such as teraelectronvolts i don't know what sort of context that applies to. like are they pumping that much energy into the magnets or what are they doing with all those electron volts its confusing.
like what do they mean when they say beam x number of teraelectronvolts per beam?

 

[Bob S]

What LHC does is circulate the protons in a 27 Km circumference ring of magnets, so the circulation time is about 90 microseconds per revolution. Every time the beam comes around, special radio frequency (RF) cavities give the beam a 485,000 volt kick (acceleration). In 20 minutes, the kicks add up to 485,000 x 60 x 20/(90 x 10^-6) = 6,500,000,000,000 volts, or 6.5 trillion volts, or 6.5 tera electron volts (TeV). There are actually two beams, one going in each direction. The magnets do not pump any energy into the beam, they just guide the beam around in the ring. (Right now, they are only accelerating to about 3.5 TeV per beam).

Bob S

 

[lederhosen]

thanks. that cleared a lot up