LHC First beam a success

Today, the first beam in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator this morning.

“It’s a fantastic moment,” said LHC project leader Lyn Evans, “we can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe.”

The LHC is capable of proping the energy region around 1 TeV by colliding together 7 TeV proton beams, which should reveal new physics that will address the following questions:

1) Is there a Higgs particle?

2) Is there supersymmetry (SUSY)?

3) What is dark matter?

4) Where has all the antimatter gone?

5) Why are there only six quarks?


More at press.web.cern.ch and scitech.

The LHC countdown is on!

LHC First Beam on
10 September 2008

On 10 September scientists at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland will attempt for the first time to circulate a beam in the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, and will produce beams seven times more energetic, and around 30 times more intense than any previous machine when it reaches design performance.

The first injection of a beam is scheduled for 9:30 CET (+9 hours from Pacific Standard Time), and will be preceded by a planning meeting that will be relayed to the Globe from 9:00.

The Live webcast can be found here.