Celebrating the first LHC collisions

Livia Lapadatescu — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 09:08:44 +0000

Celebrating the first LHC collisions

by Alexandra Welsch (UNILIV)

Scenes in the CERN Control Centre (CCC) as stable beams at an energy of 6.5 TeV mark the start of run2 physics at the LHC. Image credit: CERN

On Wednesday, 3^rd June, 10.40 am, the LHC operators declared "stable beams" at 6.5 TeV, the signal for the LHC experiments that they can start taking data for the first time in 27 months, after an almost two year shutdown and an intense eight weeks of beam commissioning. This marks the official start of Run 2 physics at the LHC and the start of a new adventure.

The LHC was filled with 6 bunches each containing around 100 billion protons. This rate will be progressively increased as the run goes on to 2808 bunches per beam, allowing the LHC to produce up to 1 billion collisions per second.

Collisions seen within the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb detectors
Image credit: CERN

The world’s most powerful accelerator is now providing collisions at the record energy of 13 TeV, almost double the collision energy of its first run. This new energy frontier will allow researchers to probe new boundaries in our understanding of the fundamental structure of matter.

"For the LHC and its detectors to work, everything has to work. And that means I take my hat off to everyone." says CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer." What comes next will, without a doubt, change the way we see the Universe we live in.”

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LHC restart

Run2

particle collider

13 TeV

The LHC is back in business

Livia Lapadatescu — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 11:12:59 +0000

The LHC is back in business
by Margarita Synanidi (CERN), Agnes Szeberenyi (CERN)

Reactions in the CERN control centre on the 5th of April
Image credit: CERN

After two years of crucial upgrade work, the world’s largest and most powerful atom smasher is back in operation. On the 5^th April, at 10.41am, a proton beam was back in the 27-kilometer ring, followed at 12.27pm by a second beam rotating in the opposite direction. These beams circulated at their injection energy of 450 GeV. The Director General of CERN mentioned “the beam went smoothly through the whole machine. It’s fantastic to see it going so well after two years and such a major overhaul of the LHC”. On 9^th April the operations team successfully circulated a beam at 6.5 TeV.

Start-up was delayed for two weeks after a piece of metal caused a short circuit in the safety system around one of the LHC’s superconducting magnets. Engineers cleared the debris on 30 March by vaporizing it with a discharge of current. A similar problem occurred before, at the start of the LHC’s first run, and it was also solved without causing major delays.

On Sunday the protons injected at a relatively low energy to begin with. They will keep working nonstop 24hours per day until they will establish the first stable collision, as explained by the LHC coordinator of operation, Jorg Wenninger.

Over the coming months, engineers hope to gradually increase the beams' energy to 13 trillion electronvolts (double speed what it was during first operating run). They scientists estimate that the particle collisions at an energy of 13 TeV could start as early as June. With that beam energy level raised, it is conceivable that the LHC will capture dark matter, marking a leap forward in our understanding of the universe.

Now starts a new phase of the study of physics, it remains to be seen what the results will be.

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accelerating-news-arc.web.cern.ch - LHC restart

Celebrating the first LHC collisions

The LHC is back in business