After an initial series of setbacks related to technical glitches, the
European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) Large Hadron
Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator located outside Geneva has begun
to produce results. This week, CERN reported the LHC successfully
circulated two 3.5 TeV proton beams, setting a record for the highest
energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator. CERN labeled the
accomplishment “an important step” on the way to the start of the LHC
research program.
The organization said the first attempt to collide beams at 7 TeV (3.5
TeV per beam) would follow on a date to be announced in the near
future.
The current LHC run began in early Nov. 2009, with the first
circulating beam at 0.45 TeV. Additional records followed soon after,
with twin circulating beams established by late November and a world
record beam energy of 1.18 TeV being set on Nov. 30. By the time the
LHC switched off for 2009 in mid-December, another record had been set
with collisions recorded at 2.36 TeV and “significant quantities” of
data recorded.
“Getting the beams to 3.5 TeV is testimony to the soundness of the
LHC’s overall design, and the improvements we’ve made since the
breakdown in September 2008,” explained CERN’s director for
accelerators and technology, Steve Myers. “And it’s a great credit to
the patience and dedication of the LHC team.”
After the 2.36 TeV collisions, a technical stop ensued at the beginning
of 2010, during which the machine was prepared for higher-energy
running. Higher energy collisions require higher electrical currents in
the LHC magnet circuits. CERN scientists said this places more exacting
demands on the new machine protection systems, which have currently
been readied for the task. Once 7 TeV collisions have been established,
the organization’s plan is to run continuously for a period of 18-24
months, with a short technical stop at the end of 2010.
The LHC, the world’s largest machine, is the world's highest-energy
particle accelerator, intended to collide opposing particle beams of
protons at great speed.
CERN scientists hope that the LHC will help
answer some of the most fundamental questions in physics, including
basic laws governing the interactions and forces among the elementary
objects, the deep structure of space and time and especially regarding
the intersection of quantum mechanics and general relativity. CERN
spent more than a year repairing the device, built with the intention
of testing various predictions of high-energy physics, after, due to a
fault between two superconducting bending magnets, the project was
brought to halt soon after the first tests began in September 2008.
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