LHC Has First Collisions After Years of Waiting 324
An anonymous reader writes "Only four days after the first attempt to send a particle beam around the LHC, we have arrived at the point when all four experiments got their first real collisions from the machine. This was met by celebrations and champagne, as people have been waiting years and years for this moment. It is a testament to the engineering of the machine that collisions were reached already, so few days after restarting. The LHC had already demonstrated ca 10h stable beams, and now also stable beams in both directions at the same time. In the coming weeks, we need only wait for increased intensity and the first attempts at acceleration."
Data from first collision through CMS detector (Score:5, Informative)
The beams aren't squeezed right now, just centered. You have a higher probability of collisions when they're squeezed (which will be coming up shortly). It was very cool to be in the control room when the first collision took place =)
Crossing the Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Despite all the hoopla, all they've really done is cross the streams.
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 look out for collisions. Later, beams crossed at points 2 and 8, ALICE and LHCb.
An important step, sure. But low-speed collisions and beam tuning are not what the LHC is designed to do. It's akin to a pitcher throwing a few warmup pitches - he won't be bringing the heat til he's out on the mound, he's just trying to make sure he shoulder is fucking healed after he blew it out in his first opening game.
By the end of the year we should have some real info about the first useful collisions.
GNOME (Score:4, Informative)
Re:So how much longer... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The real question is... (Score:3, Informative)
Nothing is special about 2012.. Or are you still working on the really in-accurate assumptions of the Mayan calendar?
2012 has no relevance to anything.
Re:Crossing the Streams (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Data from first collision through CMS detector (Score:5, Informative)
High Speed Collisions (Score:3, Informative)
But low-speed collisions and beam tuning are not what the LHC is designed to do.
You do realize that even at the injection energy the speed of the protons is 99.99978% of the speed of light in vacuum and at full energy the speed of the protons has only increased to 99.9999991%? The collisions are both equally high speed thanks to relativity: what is interesting is the collision energy.
Re:Banging rocks together... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Banging rocks together... (Score:3, Informative)
"Just kick the system and see what it does". Isn't that usually how we start figuring out how stuff works?
In physics, kicking it will tell you what something does.
In compsci, kicking it will tell you what something did.
Re:LHC@Home! (Score:3, Informative)
LHC@home was used during the construction of the collider to test and validate magnet calibration scenarios - that phase was completed over three years ago. LHC@Home is no longer associated with the LHC *or* CERN (beyond website hosting) and has not provided [BOINC] work units for over two years.
Re:I for one... (Score:4, Informative)
Do you think, if somehow the sun were turned into a black hole, it would suck in the earth?
How about if we turned a pound of bricks, or a pound of feathers into a black hole with the LHC?
What's that? It would still only have the mass of a pound and not have the gravitational pull to suck 'everything' into it, outside of a radius of ~6.71316708 × 10^-28.
Re:I for one... (Score:4, Informative)