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Tag archive: LHC

From CERN: The LHC is back

25 November 2009 Particle beams are once again circulating in the world Category: Uncategorized | Tagged: ,

From CERN: Two circulating beams bring first collisions in the LHC

25 November 2009 Today the LHC circulated two beams simultaneously for the first time, allowing the operators to test the synchronization of the beams and giving the experiments their first chance to look for proton-proton collisions. With just one bunch of particles circulating in each direction, the beams can be made to cross in up to two places in the ring. From early in the afternoon, the beams were made to cross at points 1 and 5, home to the ATLAS and CMS detectors, both of which were on the look out for collisions. Later, beams crossed at points 2 and 8, ALICE and LHCb. Category: Feature | Tagged: ,

Rethinking LHC-ILC connections

| 12 November 2009 The American Linear Collider Physics Group (ALCPG) workshop held in Albuquerque, New Mexico from 29 September to 3 October was one of our large ILC meetings that we hold twice a year... [P]erhaps the most important contribution was a talk given by Michael Peskin, SLAC, with the intriguing title, "Rethinking the LHC - ILC Connection." Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: ,

CERN prepares for LHC commissioning

| 15 October 2009 (...) We were very fortunate to hear a timely report from Philippe Lebrun on the status of the LHC and plans for commissioning at the American Linear Collider Physics Group workshop in Albuquerque at the end of September. -- By Barry Barish Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: ,

Spring-scrubbing the beam pipe

| 12 March 2009 The ILC is not the only accelerator that has to struggle against electron clouds and their distracting effect on the particle beam. Even the Large Hadron Collider LHC at CERN may suffer from it, and tests on two of its pre-accelerators, the PS and the SPS, have already proven several techniques with which the electron-cloud build-up can be avoided or at least be brought under better control. One of those techniques is ‘scrubbing’, and it does what it says on the packet: it scrubs the beam pipe clean from the inside. It does not do this with bucket, cloth and detergent, however. Instead, a beam at the highest possible intensity, the limit of what the machines can take, is pumped through, literally getting hoovered by the vacuum pumps. Category: Feature | Tagged: , , ,

From CERN: CERN management confirms new LHC restart schedule

12 February 2009 Geneva, 9 February 2009. CERN management today confirmed the restart schedule for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) resulting from the recommendations from last week’s Chamonix workshop. The new schedule foresees first beams in the LHC at the end of September this year, with collisions following in late October. A short technical stop has also been foreseen over the Christmas period. The LHC will then run through to autumn next year, ensuring that the experiments have adequate data to carry out their first new physics analyses and have results to announce in 2010. The new schedule also permits the possible collisions of lead ions in 2010. Category: Around the World | Tagged: , ,

First beam in the LHC

| 11 September 2008 Wednesday must have been one of the biggest days in science history. It certainly was the biggest day in particle physics for a long time coming - the first full beam around the LHC. The first protons completed the full circle at 10:28 am (less than an hour after first injection), and scientists in CERN's control rooms cheered and clapped, ran to the screens, pointed at monitors and breathed a massive, communal sigh of relief. Amazingly, after a cryogenic glitch around lunchtime, another first beam made its first full lap in the opposite direction at 15:03. The media centre in CERN's Globe was abuzz, French media had gathered in a Paris bar to follow the events, German press was connected via a multi-way videoconference and at Fermilab scientists and press watched in dressing gown and pyjamas. It was a picture-book start-up. Category: Feature | Tagged: ,

From CERN: First beam in the LHC – accelerating science

11 September 2008 Geneva, 10 September 2008. The first beam in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN1 was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres of the world's most powerful particle accelerator at 10h28 this morning. This historic event marks a key moment in the transition from over two decades of preparation to a new era of scientific discovery. Category: Feature | Tagged: ,

From CERN bulletin: Start-up fever

24 July 2008 Unusually for the holiday season, the car parks are full, finding a table at lunch is a formidable challenge, and people can (more than ever) be found in their offices late into the night. All the evidence points to one thing… the most ambitious particle collider in the world is just a few weeks away from its first proton beam! Category: Around the World | Tagged: ,

The Open Day at CERN – My first encounter with particle physics

17 April 2008 Being the new CERN/LHC Communicator for Germany but not having a degree in physics (I worked at the press office of the Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim, Germany, for the past ten years), the CERN Open Day was an excellent opportunity to learn more about particle physics and "the world's largest particle physics laboratory" that I wouldn't have wanted to miss. The crowds were massive, but with the help of a press badge I managed to see a good variety of events and places. Category: Feature | Tagged: , , ,