Heavy ion physics at the large hadron collider at CERN

The High Energy Physics plans of Europe see as the top priority the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the LEP tunnel. This collider is planned as a p-p collider with 8 + 8 TeV as well as a heavy ion collider with lead ions and an energy of 3.2 + 3.2 ATev. This corresponds to collisions of matter with cosmic rays of the utmost energies observed so far. Minor improvements of the ion source from the 1994 design are necessary in order to provide a luminosity of L = 2 x 10(27) (1/cm2s2). This would open new domains in physics with energy densities presently not existing in the Universe.