After a lot of complications, Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator is resuming operation on February 20, ramping up to a beam intensity of 3.5 TeV (trillion electron volts) sometime in March. It will then run for a period of 18 to 24 months, and will then shut down in early 2012 for winter repairs. (It was originally going to be shut down next winter for repairs, as well, but that plan has been revised.)
The previous record was a beam of intensity of 0.98 TeV, which was broken by the LHC last November when it reached a beam intensity of 1.18 TeV. The LHC plan will result in collisions that are about three times more powerful than any that we've ever performed on Earth. The LHC was designed to circulate beams that have intensity of 7 TeV, but it'll be at least 2013 before we see it even trying to ramp up to this sort of power. In the meantime, physicists should be able to get a lot of great physics results to look over.
Related Articles:
- New York Times - Hadron Collider Set for Half Power
- LHC Press Release - LHC sets new world record, Nov. 11, 2009
- ComputerWorld.com - Scientists start analyzing Large Hadron Collider data, Jan. 12, 2010
Comments
All this testing and ramp up and more power and shutting down and ramping up again . I’m not a scientist although am very interested in the LHC test? Which so much money and energy and effort and time has gone into however I can’t find a single report or update of what the scientist are looking at? What have they seen thus far? What in the heck are they looking at? It’s like a exclusive private kids club payed by the tax Paterson as usual . Can anyone exsplain in plain old English something anything please????
Dude!!! Your’e so ignorant.
The LHC is supposed to find and investigate the Higgs boson.
Without a clear confirmation of the Higgs the theoretical model of the particle physics stays theoretical.
And we don’t want just theories. We want proof.
Once found there’s a Nobel price to collect and the finders names written into the books of history.
why look for mystery particle,” Higgs boson”? . why spend so much
effort and money on understanding the mystery of mass?
this world has
more important problems to be solved.
Well Kat, discovering extra dimensions, banding space and developing technology to be able to reach Gliese 581c sounds a little more important then increased prices on starbucks labor intensive drinks or caring which rich boy to vote for this year.
Just imagine that some day we’ll be hoovering over some alien planet in our own UFOs scaring the little grey man to death.
And yes! they might have oil!
eugene@wirewalk.com
I found a Colin worm in my Jelly do you think its a side affect of the LHC
This is a bad idea if you ask me. I know it’d be a great scientific leap for us, but what if something goes wrong and the whole thing backfires? Why doesn’t the government ever think about the worst case scenario?