LHC Reaches Over One Trillion Electron Volts 305
The LHC has become the world's highest-energy particle accelerator, weighing in at over one trillion electron volts. "Until now the LHC had been operating at a relatively low energy of 450 billion electron volts. On Sunday, engineers increased the energy of this 'pilot beam,' reaching 1.18 trillion electron volts at 2344 GMT. The previous record of 0.98 trillion electron volts has been held by the Tevatron accelerator since 2001. The LHC is eventually expected to operate at some seven trillion electron volts."
No collisions yet, right? (Score:3, Insightful)
Are these with collisions or merely accelerated beams in a loop? IIRC, the Tevatron did 2x0.98 TeV collisions. Which would be, well ... a bigger bang :)
But the flip side is that we've built the most powerful ray gun ever, now we just need to wait till the aliens attack.
Re:When will the science begin (Score:1, Insightful)
I am sure it has provided plenty of research... into how to design and build a new generation of particle accelerators.
The science has begun!
Just, not the same science as what the project is to eventually accomplish...
Re:When will the science begin (Score:3, Insightful)
In other words, the scientific community actually doesn't "understand the reasoning" and is as ignorant as the general public.
Re:Greenhouse Gases (Score:3, Insightful)
Later, Atomm was seen driving off in his SUV, looking smug that he had put those damned scientists in their place.
Re:When will the science begin (Score:5, Insightful)
Troll?
It was only switched on again a week ago, and you want it to be spewing out Higgs' already?!!?
These machines are *stunningly* complex, and always take years to reach their full potential. Google for the luminosity history of any major machine (LEP, Tevatron, etc.) to see how long they took to reach their design goals.
Trust me, as a particle physicist (posting anonymously to preserve moderations), this week has been amazingly exciting, and everyone I know is stunned by how fast this machine is coming back on.
"step it up a notch" -- you *must* be a troll.
Re:Question about particle accelerators (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't rush it... (Score:1, Insightful)
This amount of testing is not unusual for something this complex and costly. Have some patience. The LHC has already had plenty of down-time caused by unforeseen failures.
I work in the satellite industry, and it is not uncommon for a satellite to undergo 2+ years of testing before it gets launched. This kind of extensive up-front testing is not a matter of too much red tape, nor of being overly cautious. It is the result of decades of hard lessons - billions of dollars being flushed down the toilet, and in some cases, lives being lost, because of rushing a flawed product to delivery.
The LHC is already on shaky ground. Funding for this kind of science is extremely difficult to obtain even in good times, and a major system failure at this point may lead to the LHC getting shut down for good. And if that happens, it will be a VERY long time before funding for this kind of thing becomes available again. It takes a LOT of time to properly test a system this big and complex. So relax. The science will still be here when the testing is done.
Re:but where (Score:5, Insightful)
Religions object only to research into topics where they have already been proven wrong.
Re:When will the science begin (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, all money ever does is employ people. That's what money is - a way to get other people to give you the product of their labors.
Re:Translation into sensible units (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm amused at the idea that people who dislike things being "dumbed down" need someone to do this basic conversion for them :)
Pathetic (Score:3, Insightful)
The half-finished, mostly-paid-for SSC [wikipedia.org] was slated at 20 TeV. You'll forgive my shrug at 1 TeV. This is an embarrassing footnote on the state of physics in modern civilization. Thanks Clinton.