GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) ended its 180-day 2011 proton run programme on the LHC (Large Hadron Collidor), Sunday evening 30 October. The proton-proton collisions have been providing data for research programmes.
The Geneva-based organization is now preparing the LHC for four weeks of lead-ion running, “but in a new development this year, the world’s largest particle accelerator will also attempt to demonstrate that large can also be agile by colliding protons with lead ions in two dedicated periods of machine development. If successful, these tests will lead to a new strand of LHC operation, using protons to probe the internal structure of the much more massive lead ions,” Cern says in a statement.
“This is important for the lead-ion programme, whose goal is to study quark-gluon plasma, the primordial soup of particles from which the ordinary matter of today’s visible universe evolved.
“‘Smashing lead ions together allows us to produce and study tiny pieces of primordial soup,’”said ALICE Spokesperson Paolo Giubellino, ‘but as any good cook will tell you, to understand a recipe fully, it’s vital to understand the ingredients, and in the case of quark-gluon plasma, this is what proton-lead ion collisions could bring.’”
The objective for the LHC at the start of 2011 was “to deliver a quantity of data known to physicists as one inverse femtobarn during the course of 2011.
The first inverse femtobarn came on 17 June, setting the experiments up well for the major physics conferences of the summer and requiring the 2011 data objective to be revised upwards to five inverse femtobarns. That milestone was passed by 18 October, with the grand total for the year being almost six inverse femtobarns delivered to each of the two general-purpose experiments Atlas and CMS.”
Steve Myers, director for accelerators and technology, says, “The present data production rate is a factor of 4 million higher than in the first run in 2010 and a factor of 30 higher than at the beginning of 2011.”
Cern triggered a heated and ongoing scientific debate when it announced in September that its Opera project had measured neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light, a finding that if confirmed upsets one of the tenets of physics, Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Ed. note: Irish musicians who sang for US President Barack Obama at his inauguration in 2008 are now releasing a new song, taking the mickey out of Albert Einstein and Cern. Ger Corrigan, the band’s lead singer, says “for the moment we are backing Albert and his theory, I’m no Einstein but he was.”
GENEVALUNCH – The race is on at Cern, the European Nuclear Research Centre in Geneva, to complete results on a number of experiments in time for the physics world’s major summer conferences, and Friday 17 June a landmark was reached that is encouraging researchers.
“Today at around 10:50 CEST, the amount of data accumulated by LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiments Atlas and CMS clicked over from 0.999 to 1 inverse femtobarn, signalling an important milestone in the experiments’ quest for new physics,” Cern says in a statement. “The number signifies a quantity physicists call integrated luminosity, which is a measure of the total number of collisions produced. One inverse femtobarn equates to around 70 million million (70×1012) collisions, and in 2010 it was the target set for the 2011 run. That it has been achieved just three months after the first beams of 2011 is testimony to how well the LHC is running.”
The Higgs mechanism and supersymmetry are among the new physics sought by the experiments.
“The Higgs mechanism, and its associated particle, is the last missing ingredient of the so-called Standard Model of particle physics that explains the behaviour and interactions of the fundamental particles that make up the ordinary matter from which we and everything around us are made. The Higgs mechanism gives rise to the masses of certain particles.”
“Ordinary matter, however, appears to be only around 4% of what the Universe is made of. Supersymmetry is a theory that goes beyond the Standard Model. It is a more elegant theory of ordinary matter, and could also explain the mysterious dark matter that makes up about a quarter of the universe. With one inverse femtobarn there’s a real chance that, if these theories are correct, they will start to manifest themselves in the data.”
Cern's LHC team - excitement over latest beam collisions record
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It’s been a busy and record-breaking week at Cern, the European Nuclear Research Centre on the French-Swiss border, with LHC (Large Hadron Collider) researchers achieving a significant milestone and elusive antimatter held for 1,000 seconds for the first time.
Trapping antimatter for longer opens new research vistas
“The Alpha experiment at Cern reports that it has succeeded in trapping antimatter atoms for over 16 minutes: long enough to begin to study their properties in detail. Alpha is part of a broad programme at Cern’s antiproton decelerator investigating the mysteries of one of nature’s most elusive substances,” the organization reports, following publication Sunday 5 June of the news in the scientific journal Nature (article free online).
Nature in November 2010 reported on Alpha’s capture of antimatter then, saying it was the first significant milestone in the field since 2002, but this week’s report takes the research work to a new level. “For physicists, a bit of antimatter is a precious gift indeed,” said the November Nature report. “By comparing matter to its counterpart, they can test fundamental symmetries that lie at the heart of the standard model of particle physics, and look for hints of new physics beyond. Yet few gifts are as tricky to wrap. Bring a particle of antimatter into contact with its matter counterpart and the two annihilate in a flash of energy.”
The new achievement raises the question of how long anitmatter can be held, say Cern scientists, and it opens new research possibilities.
The moment of impact of two lead ions, quarks in red, blue green, hadrons in white © CERN 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The high-energy collisions at Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are creating conditions that allow scientists to observe the resulting jets, or streams of quarks and gluons, careening away from the point of collision. The collisions recreate the conditions just instants after the Big Bang, particle physicists’ term for the creation of the Universe. One of the things they are seeing is small quantities of a primordial soup known as quark gluon plasma (QMP) in which conditions are too hot for quarks and gluons to combine into protons and neutrons.
“With nuclear collisions, the LHC has become a fantastic ‘Big Bang’ machine,” said Alice spokesperson Jürgen Schukraft. “In some respects, the quark-gluon matter looks familiar,” he notes, adding that “we’re also starting to see glimpses of something new.”
In the lighter proton collisions, particles appear in pairs. The jets that appear in the heavy lead ion collisions are affected by the QMP and lose their energies rapidly, a process known as quenching: “This leads to a very characteristic signal, known as jet quenching, in which the energy of the jets can be severely degraded, signalling interactions with the medium more intense than ever seen before. Jet quenching is a powerful tool for studying the behaviour of the plasma in detail,” according to Cern.
Image of lead ion collision captured by ALICE experiment. ©2010 CERN
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has successfully made the transition to collisions using lead ions, instead of lighter protons, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, Cern, announced 8 November. The collision of the much heavier lead ion particles resulted in temperatures a million times hotter than those at the centre of the sun, and tiny quantities of matter called quark-gluon plasma which is believed to have existed micro-moments after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
The LHC collides beams of particles going in opposite directions in a 27km-long circular tunnel straddling the Geneva-France border. Until 4 November the beams of particles were of protons. It took only four days to make the transition to lead ion beams, Cern said.
Lead ions are lead atoms stripped of their electrons. The collision of lead ion beams will allow scientists to study the origins of the strong nuclear force which binds particles together.
Links to other sites: BBC, Cern, New Scientist
Other programmes will be slowed down to accommodate cost cuts, no Cern accelerators to run in 2012
Aerial view Cern - Photo Cern
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will continue to operate at its current budget level, but several other programmes will be slowed at Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in order to save CHF343 million between 2011 and 2015. Member states will contribute CHF135m less than originally budgeted and a “consolidation” of social security systems.The budget plan, presented to Cern’s Council in June, was revised it the council’s request, with cost-saving measures.
“The plan protects the flagship LHC programme, achieving cost savings by slowing down the pace of other programmes,” the organization said in its official announcement. “Cern management considers this a good result for the Laboratory given the current financial environment.”
Cern’s Director General Rolf Heuer, commenting on the cuts, notes that “it reduces spending on research and consolidation through careful and responsible adjustment of the pace originally foreseen in a way that does not compromise the future research programme unduly. The reductions will be painful, but in the current financial environment, they are fair.”
Details of the social security system cost-saving were not published with the announcement.
Particle tracks fly out from the heart of Cern's Alice experiment from one the first LHC collisions at a total energy of 7 TeV
Update 27 July Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Cern’s LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is starring at ICHEP, the world’s largest international conference on particle physics, which opens in Paris Monday 26 July. More than 1,00o scientists are attending.
Four spokespersons for the LHC’s four main experiments, Alice, Atlas, CMS and LHCb, are presenting data at the conference today.
The data is measurements from the first three months of successful LHC operation at 3.5 TeV per beam, an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.
The measurements to date are for “the particles that lie at the heart of the Standard Model, the package that contains current understanding of the particles of matter and the forces that act between them,” Cern notes in a press release.
“This is an essential step before moving on to make discoveries. Among the billions of collisions already recorded are some that contain ‘candidates’ for the top quark, for the first time at a European laboratory.”
GE Servette organizes celebration to thank fans after its dreams of national title fade
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The LHC (Lausanne Hockey Club) will have a fresh look Tuesday, with a totally new board lineup after Canadian owner Barry Alter fired the entire board and the club’s general manager, Gérard Scheidegger. The new board has not yet been named, but the club is scheduled to celebrate the end of its season Tuesday evening 27 April at the Malley sports centre.
GE Servette is inviting fans to join them Wednesday 28 April at 18:30 at the Vernets sports hall to celebrate the end of the season. Entry is free.
Links to other sites: 24 Heures (Fre), 20 Minutes (Fre)
Great excitement at Cern just after first collision occurs 30 March 2010
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Beams collided at 7 TeV in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at 13:06 Swiss time Tuesday 30 March, a successful physics breakthrough after 20 years of preparatory work that marks “the start of the LHC research programme,” notes Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in a press release. “Particle physicists around the world are looking forward to a potentially rich harvest of new physics as the LHC begins its first long run at an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.”
The mood at Cern was clearly one of high excitement.
“‘It’s a great day to be a particle physicist,’ said Cern Director General Rolf Heuer. ‘A lot of people have waited a long time for this moment, but their patience and dedication is starting to pay dividends.’”
It took three attempts Tuesday morning before a collision occurred, but overall the process was relatively smooth and quick, several Cern scientists remarked.
Background, GenevaLunch and webcast, Cern
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
Cern operations group leader Mike Lamont (foreground) and LHC engineer in charge Alick Macpherson in the Cern control centre 19 March
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two 3.5 TeV proton beams successfully circulated in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at Cern for the first time Friday morning 19 March, shortly after 05:20, a key step in ramping up the LHC for 7 TeV collisions, whose data will be fed to a series of physics research projects around the world.
Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) says this is the highest energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator.
Rhythm of life to change at Cern (photo: Cern team watching low energy first collisions 16 December 2009 at 04:00)
Update 22:50 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The annual shutdown of accelerators at Cern, long a part of the rhythm of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, are coming to an end, with the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) gearing up. The organization will instead continue to operate the LHC for 18-24 months, then close for a longer period, possibly a year, to accommodate the LHC’s needs at a higher energy, Cern said 10 March, confirming information it provided in February, that the LHC would shut down in 2011.
The LHC is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles: the fundamental building blocks of all things.
Control room, LHC startup, Cern, November 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Large Hadron Collider at Geneva’s Cern (European Centre for Nuclear Research) has beat previously recorded energy levels by accelerating beams of particles to 1.18 TeV early 30 November. The previous record was 0.98 TeV.
Scientists at Cern are particularly happy about the results because they come only 10 days after the LHC was started up again after explosions one year ago caused serious and expensive damage.
Updated 24 November 08:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) began to run over the weekend after a year-long delay, but Monday was the real day of excitement at its home at Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research). The LHC is designed to study the world’s smallest known particles, the building blocks of the universe. Two beams have been circulating in opposite directions since the 20 November startup, alternating, but today they began to circulate at the same time, crossing at two points.
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
A view of Atlas. Higgs Boson, extra dimensions, dark matter, look here. Photo by Ellen Wallace
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern (European Centre for Nuclear Research) will be switched on this weekend 21-22 November after its year-long repairs. 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. The LHC will start up very slowly at first, probably at no more than 45o GeV, says James Gillies, head of communications. Energy levels will slowly be increased to about 3.5 TeV by mid-January.
GenevaLunch asked Gillies why the LHC, designed to run at 7 TeV, was going to go at only half-steam. He explained that the LHC’s breakdown in September 2008 required a series of careful checks on the machine before it could ramp up to full power.
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.
Angels & Demons exhibit, Globe, Cern (photo: Cern)
Meyrin, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Antimatter is what matters in the new Tom Hanks film, released 15 May. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) has a starring role, too.
Cern’s new exhibition at its Globe centre opened Sunday 17 May and tries to answer the questions viewers of Angels & Demons may have about the science of particle physics. The movie was produced by Ron Howard and stars Tom Hanks.
The exhibit is small, but concise. The average 15 year-old who spends one hour will get a basic grasp of what antimatter is, where it came from, where it went and why Cern is trying to recreate it.
Control room at Cern, first beam in September 2008
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at Cern could be up and running by August, if all goes according to plan. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) said Thursday 30 April that it has taken an important step in completing repairs to the LHC. The massive structure was damaged 19 September 2008, just days after Cern turned on the switch to the machine that is designed to answer questions about the very first instants after the Big Bang.
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.
click on images to view larger
LHC control room in October 2008, following breakdown
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – In an interview carried by Swiss German site news.ch (Ger) Sunday, Cern’s new boss Rolf-Dieter Heuer said the bill for the breakdown of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) could go as high as CHF40 million. He also said that he expects to see the LHC starting up again in July 2009, about four months later than the date Cern has previously given journalists.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, announced Tuesday evening that the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider, will not be re-started before spring 2009. The LHC was shut down after a large helium leak into the LHC tunnel 19 September.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A helium leak at midday Friday 19 September in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at Cern has not caused any injuries but the LHC will have to be shut down for at least two months to allow it to be warmed up and repairs carried out, Cern announced Saturday afternoon.
Ed. note: live video streaming is available on TSR. Le Temps is providing regular reports on site, throughout the day (Fre)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Fourteen years of building and scientific research, and $9 billion spent to construct and test the world’s most powerful particle accelerator will begin to bear fruit today when Cern attempts to inject and circulate the first beam in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). By mid-morning Cern was able to announce that the first beam had made its first successful tour (see BBC video report). Read more…
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
