Two beams circulating in the LHC, First collisions in four detectors.

Date- 23rd Nov 09 Source- http://cdsweb.cern.ch/collection/Video%20Movies

'Geneva, 23 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 lookout for collisions. Later, beams crossed at points 2 and 8, ALICE and LHCb. Its a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time, said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. But we need to keep a sense of perspective theres still much to do before we can start the LHC physics programme. Beams were first tuned to produce collisions in the ATLAS detector, which recorded its first candidate for collisions at 14:22 this afternoon. Later, the beams were optimised for CMS. In the evening, ALICE had the first optimisation, followed by LHCb. This is great news, the start of a fantastic era of physics and hopefully discoveries after 20 years' work by the international community to build a machine and detectors of unprecedented complexity and performance," said ATLAS spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti. The events so far mark the start of the second half of this incredible voyage of discovery of the secrets of nature, said CMS spokesperson Tejinder Virdee. It was standing room only in the ALICE control room and cheers erupted with the first collisions, said ALICE spokesperson Jurgen Schukraft. This is simply tremendous. The tracks were seeing are beautiful, said LHCb spokesperson Andrei Golutvin, were all ready for serious data taking in a few days time. These developments come just three days after the LHC restart, demonstrating the excellent performance of the beam control system. Since the start-up, the operators have been circulating beams around the ring alternately in one direction and then the other at the injection energy of 450 GeV. The beam lifetime has gradually been increased to 10 hours, and today beams have been circulating simultaneously in both directions, still at the injection energy. Next on the schedule is an intense commissioning phase aimed at increasing the beam intensity and accelerating the beams. All being well, by Christmas, the LHC should reach 1.2 TeV per beam, and have provided good quantities of collision data for the experiments calibrations.'

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• cern
• large
• hadron
• collider

[ScottKin]

@SwivelHawk Actually, Wireless technology *is* benefiting many people in Africa today, because it's cheaper to build a wireless repeater for telecommunications - yes, even in the desert and isolated viliages - than it is to lay-down wire for such services. Where do you get your information from? It seems to be very out-dated.

[ScottKin]

@glirkdient Nearly every bit of high-tech you use today was a spin-off from technology used in the "Space Race" - even Velcro!. Einstein's theories also gave us *SAFE AND CLEAN* Nuclear Energy, the creation of radioisotopes used in Radiation Therapy to kill cancer, and a deeper understanding of the Universe.

[starlogic99]

greatest experiment ever and we barely hear any thing about this...isn't there any updates to the public?!

[kaylynnsdad]

@sid8980 agreed

[glirkdient]

@sid8980 Just like how Einsteins theories led to nuclear weapons. Could definately live without his nonsense. Not like the space age brought about anything useful.

[sid8980]

@glirkdient Yay, more powerful nukes, better tanks, more efficient bio weps and maybe something mega ultra deadly on the horizon! Loving it dude! This kind of technology isnt ever implemented to improve our lives, and no,i dont want to live in a cave and am thankful for some of the things that make our lives a little easier, but this kind of tech I can live without.

[SidandCoke]

This is truly wonderful. Another step towards a unified theory. Think of the possibilities of understanding gravity or dark energy? This is so much more effective than wasting money on supernatural mumbo jumbo.

[SwivelHawk]

Fine, I agree with you. But that's not what we're talking about here. I wasn't talking about the history of science in civilization, brother, I'm trying to be more specific here. Does wireless technology reach and benefit African people? While certain techs become really popular, others, and normally the most important ones, can only be reached by those of financial power. That is my point.

[glirkdient]

Benefit a few people? Scientific understanding benefits everyone. The history of science has always seemed like it wouldn't have a common day use to the masses, but it's these scientific breakthroughs that allow us to invent the unimaginable that drastically change the way the world operates. Look at wireless technology, that didn't exist until science had shown it was possible.

[SwivelHawk]

Well, I'm well aware of the future applications for mature (molecular) nanotechnology, as I have been following the work of Drs. Ray Kurzweil, Kim Eric Drexler, Vernor Vinge, Robert Freitas Jr., and so on. Still, I fail to see what kind of real social contributions such scientific endeavors may bring, since all these developments occur inside of a monetary economy context. As with every substantial step in technology, whatever comes from this is likely to benefit only a few people.