Mitch Cronin Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 ...from: http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleas...9/PR16.09E.html The LHC is back Geneva, 20 November 2009. Particle beams are once again circulating in the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, CERN1’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This news comes after the machine was handed over for operation on Wednesday morning. A clockwise circulating beam was established at ten o'clock this evening. This is an important milestone on the road towards first physics at the LHC, expected in 2010. “It’s great to see beam circulating in the LHC again,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “We’ve still got some way to go before physics can begin, but with this milestone we’re well on the way.” The LHC circulated its first beams on 10 September 2008, but suffered a serious malfunction nine days later. A failure in an electrical connection led to serious damage, and CERN has spent over a year repairing and consolidating the machine to ensure that such an incident cannot happen again. “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.” Recommissioning the LHC began in the summer, and successive milestones have regularly been passed since then. The LHC reached its operating temperature of 1.9 Kelvin, or about -271 Celsius, on 8 October. Particles were injected on 23 October, but not circulated. A beam was steered through three octants of the machine on 7 November, and circulating beams have now been re-established. The next important milestone will be low-energy collisions, expected in about a week from now. These will give the experimental collaborations their first collision data, enabling important calibration work to be carried out. This is significant, since up to now, all the data they have recorded comes from cosmic rays. Ramping the beams to high energy will follow in preparation for collisions at 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam) next year. Particle physics is a global endeavour, and CERN has received support from around the world in getting the LHC up and running again. “It’s been a herculean effort to get to where we are today,” said Myers. “I’d like to thank all those who have taken part, from CERN and from our partner institutions around the world.” A press conference will be held at CERN, at the Globe of Science and Innovation, at 2pm on Monday 23 November, and webcast at: http://webcast.cern.ch/. Submit your questions to @CERN via Twitter. We cannot guarantee that all questions will be answered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canus Chinookus Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Exciting stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon The Loon Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 The end is nigh. Shouldn't they be waiting for 2112 to do this stuff? No, wait - that'd be Rush-ing things... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 And the men who hold high places Must be the ones who start To mold a new reality Closer to the heart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDR Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Hi Mitch How are you making out with that Brian Greene book? It tends to be just a little mind boggling eh? Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 "Wheels within wheels in a spiral array, a pattern so grand and complex. Time after time we lose sight of the way, our causes can't see their effects" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Check Pilot Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Uh oh. Mitch ya just had to start this up again didn't ya. You can watch the LHC from these cameras. (Sorry if I've posted this before but it's important for all of us to know). ------- As you can see there is nothing to worry about. LHC Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment Webcams http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted November 23, 2009 Author Share Posted November 23, 2009 How are you making out with that Brian Greene book? It tends to be just a little mind boggling eh? Hi Greg.... I'm only about half way through or so... I've been trying to soak up some things a little before reading on... I'm afraid he lost me with the shape of the universe and symetry... I'm not getting how it could be flat, or "saddle" shaped. But fascinating reading so far... I had a little trouble visualizing time as his angled slices of bread... ...and I guess the whole notion of relativity and c being like a speed limit - except that somehow it's not because of the expansion of space itself... so that, relative to our galaxy, those far enough away from us can indeed be receding faster than the speed of light.... (I'm not finished that chapter yet, so maybe I'll catch on?).... I'm sure I'll be reading this one more than once as well! ....I find myself eagerly awaiting more discovery! That's why the LHC is so exciting.... I'm betting the Higgs field doesn't exist. Cheers, Mitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted November 23, 2009 Author Share Posted November 23, 2009 As you can see there is nothing to worry about. LHC Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment Webcams http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html ... Oddly enough, it seems some people are genuinely worried about just such an event.... Not sure why?... surely in the middle of a black hole that sucks up everything there'd be some fun to be had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon The Loon Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 surely in the middle of a black hole that sucks up everything there'd be some fun to be had. Yeah, just like "blow" is just an expression??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDR Posted November 28, 2009 Share Posted November 28, 2009 Another update on CERN with talk of Canadian involement. Canadians and CERN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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