Beam of Protons Warms Up LHC

(The first ion beam entering point 2 of the LHC, just before the ALICE detector October 23rd 2009)

This past weekend (October 23-25th) particles once again entered the LHC after the one-year break that followed the incident of September 2008.

Friday afternoon a first beam of ions entered the LHC's clockwise beam pipe through the TI2 transfer line. The beam was successfully guided through the ALICE detector until point 3 where it was dumped.

During the late evening on Friday, the first beam of protons also entered the LHC's clockwise ring and travelled until point 3. Saturday afternoon (October 24th), protons travelled from the SPS through the TI8 transfer line and the LHCb experiment, until point 7 where they were dumped.

All settings and parameters showed a perfect functioning of the machine, which is preparing for its first circulating beam in the coming weeks.

-CERN News