Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - “Ready for collision” said the screen at Cern (European Nuclear Research Organization) shortly after 08:30. The first attempt at 7 TeV collisions of two 3.5 TeV beams, about three to four times the collisions currently done at the Fermilab in the US, is expected to occur around 10:30 this morning.
A beam was lost around 06:00 this morning, but was recovered fairly quickly. The beams are now circulating in their pipes but a collision in advance of the planned schedule is avoided by keeping them magnetically separated. The mood in the control centre is upbeat and excited although given the complexity of the task, it could be hours before a collision occurs.
- Watch the webcast live.
- Background, GenevaLunch
- Cern LHC pages
Control room for the LHC at Cern, Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) was put back into action Friday 20 November at 22:00, slightly ahead of schedule, announced Cern. The machine started up, but was quickly shut down after a problem a year ago. “The LHC is a far better understood machine than it was a year ago,” said Cern’s director for accelerators, Steve Myers. “We’ve learned from our experience, and engineered the technology that allows us to move on. That’s how progress is made.” The LHC, the world’s most expensive machine, smashes atoms into each other at very high energies in order to recreate the conditions at the very beginning of the universe.
Background story, 20 November 2009
Title: Accelerating Science, an interactive exposition of particle physics
Location: Globe, CERN, Route de Meyrin, Meyrin
Link out: Click here
Description: A tunnel that looks suspiciously like the interior of the Large Hadron Collider is the venue for a look at all the science we don’t know yet. Entry free. Contact: +41 (0)22 767 76 76
Start Date: 16 Nov 2009
Start Time: 10:00
End Date: 21 Nov 2009
End Time: 17:00
Sorry, can't talk now. We're all chilling at Cern. © Copyright CERN
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The European Centre for Nuclear Research (Cern) straddles the border between Geneva and the neighbouring France department of Ain. It has just launched a site of aimed at the local communities on both sides of the border.
The site recognizes Cern’s importance to the communities it is a neighbour of, and wishes to provide a useful forum shorn of the many technical details. As such, the site is in French only for now.
Repairing the LHC, 100 metres underground, © CERN 2008
A view down into the LHC just weeks before it was sealed off, 2008
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Scientists at Cern (European Laboratory for Nuclear Research) in Geneva announced 6 August that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be switched on in mid-November, following the latest successful series of tests.
The LHC was started up in September 2008, and had to be switched off a week later, due to overheating and extensive damage to some of the magnets.
Cern's LHC, kilometres of tunnels under France and Switzerland
The latest tests involved the superconducting connections between the string of magnets, some of which revealed abnormally high resistance. It was this sudden increase in temperature in September that caused the nitrogen to heat and expand, severely damaging more than 50 magnets, each weighing almost 30 tonnes.
Cern press office James Gillies shows journalists, October 2008, mechanical damage to the LHC
Cern control centre, LHC, shortly after the accident, October 2008
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, will restart its Large Hadron Collider (LHC), shut down in October 2008 following an accident. The new schedule was announced 9 February following a workshop of technical experts the first week of February in Chamonix.
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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The particles injection test on the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at Cern 8-10 August was a success, the European Nuclear Research Center reports.
They shared details in an e-mail: “The synchronization of the LHC’s clockwise beam transfer system and the rest of CERN’s accelerator chain was successfully achieved last weekend. Tests began on Friday 8 August when a single bunch of a few particles was taken down the transfer line from the SPS accelerator to the LHC. After a period of optimization, one bunch was kicked up from the transfer line into the LHC beam pipe and steered about 3 kilometres around the LHC itself on the first attempt. On Saturday, the test was repeated several times to optimize the transfer before the operations group handed the machine back for hardware commissioning to resume on Sunday. The anti-clockwise synchronization systems will be tested over the weekend of 22 August.”
Meyrin, Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – More than 45,000 people waited for hours on Sunday 6 April, not for a glimpse of their favorite pop-artist but for a chance to see the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. CERN opened all access points to visitors before the LHC goes into operation later this year.
This scientific instrument is installed in a 27-km tunnel, 100 metres underground in the Swiss canton of Geneva and neighbouring France.
One of the visitors, Laura Riddering, pictured below, a Geneva resident, waited over three and a half hours in line.
Riddering told GenevaLunch the experience was “worth it” even if she only managed to see ATLAS, the first in a series of exhibits. ATLAS is one of two general-purpose detectors at the LHC that will investigate, among other things, particles that could make up dark matter.
According to CERN documents, a central theme apart from the LHC will be superconductivity.
At the heart of the LHC magnets lie 7,000 km of superconducting cables cooled to a temperature close to absolute zero able to conduct electricity without resistance. If reading this story is like a crash-course in physics, imagine the class that thousands of visitors got.
For many, the visit to CERN offered a better understanding of this complex science and the work performed at the lab.
For Riddering it was an enjoyable visit even if she and others were “squished as sardines” on the way to a nuclear experience.
Photos reprinted with permission, Laura Riddering
