Two circulating beams on Monday produced the first particle collisions in the world’s biggest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), three days after its restart, scientists said.
In a statement, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) said two beams circulating simultaneously led to collisions at all four detection points during the afternoon and evening.
“It’s a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time,” CERN director general Rolf Heuer said. “But we need to keep a sense of perspective. There’s still much to do before we can start the LHC physics program.”
CERN had said earlier on Monday the relaunch of the 3.9 billion euro (US$5 billion) collider was “an enormous success” after it was out of action for 14 months because of a serious electrical fault.
Scientists are looking to the collider — inside a 27km tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border — to mimic the conditions that followed the Big Bang and help explain the origins of the universe.
“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,” CERN said in its statement. “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.”
The first collision was picked up at 2:44pm by the Atlas detector beneath the Swiss town of Meyrin, one of several laid out along the route of the world’s most powerful physics experiment.
Smash-ups then followed at the three other detectors, known as CMS, Alice and LHCb.
“It was standing-room-only in the Alice control room and cheers erupted with the first collisions,” Alice spokesperson Jurgen Schukraft said. “This is simply tremendous.”
“The tracks we’re seeing are beautiful,” the CERN statement quoted LHCb spokesperson Andrei Golutvin as saying. “We’re all ready for serious data taking in a few days time.”
Earlier in the day, scientists injected the first sub-atomic particles back into the collider, then got particle beams circulating within the accelerator.
The LHC has an operating life of up to 15 years, and the collisions that it produces should generate masses of data that could unlock mysteries about the creation of the universe and the fundamental nature of matter.
Scientists want to get the collider running at 1.2 teraelectronvolts (TeV) or 1.2 trillion electronvolts by year’s end — with one TeV equal to the energy of a flying mosquito, said a CERN spokeswoman.
That would match the maximum output of what now is the largest functioning collider in the world, at the Fermilab near Chicago in the US.
By next year, however, the LHC should be ramped up to 3.5 TeV, reaching “close to five” TeV in the second half of next year. Maximum power is 7 TeV.
“Already with 3.5 TeV, we can open new windows into physics. That can already happen next year,” Heuer said earlier on Monday, refraining, however, from predicting how soon fresh data could be generated.
The LHC took nearly 20 years to construct and aims to resolve physics enigmas such as an explanation for “dark matter” and “dark energy” that account for 96 percent of the cosmos and whether other dimensions exist parallel to our own.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese