CERN's Powerful New Linear Accelerator Fires Up Ahead of LHC Upgrade (newatlas.com) 50
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NewAtlas: After an almost two-year shutdown for repairs and upgrades, CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is beginning to fire back up for its next phase of probing the mysteries of physics. Its newest particle accelerator, Linac 4, completed its first test run over the past few weeks, with the potential to provide much more energetic beams than ever before. The LHC paused operations in December 2018, beginning a massive overhaul called the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). When it's fully finished and finally fired up in 2026, the upgraded facility will be seven times more powerful and will collect around 10 times more data in the following decade than it did during the previous run.
And now, the first incremental stage of this upgrade is coming online. The new linear accelerator, called Linac 4, has been installed and tested over the last few weeks. This device is the starting point for accelerating protons, which are then injected into the Proton Synchrotron (PS) Booster and onto the rest of the accelerator complex. Linac 4 replaces Linac 2, which was in operation at CERN for 40 years. As you might expect the new model is significantly more powerful, injecting particles into the PS Booster at energies up to 160 MeV -- much higher than Linac 2's 50 MeV. By the time these beams are boosted, they'll reach energies of 2 GeV, compared to the 1.4 GeV that Linac 2 was capable of. This extra energy is thanks to the fact that scientists can tweak Linac 4's beams in much more detail than its predecessor.
In the three weeks up to mid-August, Linac 4 was tested with low-energy beams of negative hydrogen ions, running only through the first part of the accelerator. On August 20, it was finally cranked right up to maximum energy, with beams accelerated through the whole machine. These were then sent into a "beam dump" at the end, a device that catches and absorbs the particles.
And now, the first incremental stage of this upgrade is coming online. The new linear accelerator, called Linac 4, has been installed and tested over the last few weeks. This device is the starting point for accelerating protons, which are then injected into the Proton Synchrotron (PS) Booster and onto the rest of the accelerator complex. Linac 4 replaces Linac 2, which was in operation at CERN for 40 years. As you might expect the new model is significantly more powerful, injecting particles into the PS Booster at energies up to 160 MeV -- much higher than Linac 2's 50 MeV. By the time these beams are boosted, they'll reach energies of 2 GeV, compared to the 1.4 GeV that Linac 2 was capable of. This extra energy is thanks to the fact that scientists can tweak Linac 4's beams in much more detail than its predecessor.
In the three weeks up to mid-August, Linac 4 was tested with low-energy beams of negative hydrogen ions, running only through the first part of the accelerator. On August 20, it was finally cranked right up to maximum energy, with beams accelerated through the whole machine. These were then sent into a "beam dump" at the end, a device that catches and absorbs the particles.
Please hurry! (Score:3)
Can we confirm this is all a simulation and do a reset already? Surely we can change a few parameters to have a better 2020.
Re:Please hurry! (Score:5, Insightful)
Billions upon billions spent over many decades and the only thing CERN can show is "the Higgs boson", observed only there and only after serious data massaging.
Sure, the thousands of young scientists and engineers that were trained there, It's just a black hole for public money.
Same goes for all the contracts with industry that helps build, equip and maintain it. Absolutely no effect on the economy.
Not to mention all the inventions and advances that have come out of it throughout the years while trying to push the boundaries of what is achievable. The touchscreen on your phone, the World Wide Web and many other things, that's nothing.
No, I fully agree with you, apart from all that... what have the Romans done for us?
CERN's budget for 2020 is approximately 1.2 billion USD, coming from 30 countries. In comparison, the US spent in 2019 more than 700 billions USD on military expenditures, while France, Germany and the UK each spent 50 billions USD. Based on these numbers, I say we stop right now this CERN madness and return that 1.2 billion USD to the 30 participating countries to change the world.
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In comparison, the US spent
WTF has this to do with anything at all?
Everything! Trillions vs billions...
Investing this money in actual, meaningful research instead of feeding a huge bureaucracy that needs not exist and which slept though most of the technological and scientific revolutions of the past 30 years could indeed have made a huge difference.
How did you post your whining...? Where was it invented...? Are you going back to using carrier pigeons instead...?
Re: Please hurry! (Score:1)
Sure, the thousands of young scientists and engineers that were trained there, It's just a black hole for public money.
For that you don't need billions, Sub-Genius; you need a good teacher, a temperature-controlled classroom, a blackboard and some fucking chalk. If you're feeling extravagant, you can throw "em some slide rules and perhaps a fucking abacus.
Same goes for all the contracts with industry that helps build, equip and maintain it. Absolutely no effect on the economy.
You do realize that your "Keynesian notions" are based on 2 plus 2 equaling 5, right?? I'm not sure yours is the right mind to be chiming in here...
Re: Please hurry! (Score:2)
People don't learn by sitting in front of a chalk board, they learn by doing things.
Depends on the individual and the subject; could be that abstract thought just isn't your thing.
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> ; could be that abstract thought just isn't your thing.
"Abstract" only gets you that far in engineering, at some point you not only have to learn how to talk the talk, but also how to walk the walk ...
Re: Please hurry! (Score:1)
Like with a "God"... what's the difference?
The simulation engine might itself be simulated too. And built by a god. Who himself is created by a god. Who himself is simulated. And so on.
In the end, you always end up with the question: How is this useful?
And hence: How can you tell?
Because if we cannot tell, then by definition there is no difference. And it's a time waster, as it means nothing for your life.
That said, of course if we *can* tell, it is extremely useful. ... what experiment would you pr
But then
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We've been over this...
https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org]
Lol
Negative hydrogen ions? (Score:1)
You mean ... electrons?
Who writes these articles?
Re:Negative hydrogen ions? (Score:5, Informative)
Who writes these articles?
Probably people who know that negative hydrogen means hydrogen with more than one electron
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You mean ... electrons?
Who writes these articles?
No, they probably mean a hydrogen atom with an extra electron: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: Negative hydrogen ions? (Score:2)
Thanks. Came here WTF? but learned something.
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Got that, but isn't that anion rather unstable? in the sense that that extra electron only needs a tiny bit of energy to fly away? presumably much less energy than the single electron of a neutral hydrogen atom would require to fly away to ~infinity (ionize). If that's the case, and they're feeding tremendous energy into this stream of anions, why don't the extra electrons get stripped off? (which would of course leave neutral hydrogen atoms behind, which couldn't be accelerated)
To put this (perhaps) a li
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You should look up "Standard Model", "Lepton", "Elementary Particle" and such... at least before you make comments like this.
What you learning in high school probably was a gross oversimplification of reality. High energy physics is a really fun topic and you should consider learning more about it if you like reading and commenting on th
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A positive charged electronic is generally called a positron, but it is still an electron.
No, it isn't. It is electron's antiparticle. They are different things - for example a e/p pair will annihilate to produce gammas - something two electrons (or two positrons) cannot do.
You should look up "Standard Model", "Lepton", "Elementary Particle" and such... at least before you make comments like this.
You should try not only looking it up, but figuring out what it actually means.
What you learning in high school probably was a gross oversimplification of reality.
While you're at it, try to cut down on the cliche usage, remembering things without understanding what they are doesn't make you smarter.
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No, it isn't. It is electron's antiparticle. They are different things - for example a e/p pair will annihilate to produce gammas - something two electrons (or two positrons) cannot do.
Or the single electron is happily traveling forwards through space and time, is struck by a gamma ray coming from the future and that causes it to do a spectacular 180 and head off into the past.
Or maybe the electron decides to start heading backwards in time and the rapid acceleration emits a gamma ray.
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People who aren't as clueless and ignorant as you, obviously.
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Who writes these articles?
People who aren't ignorant. I often wish we'd get people like that to post on Slashdot too, instead we get you.
Another ignorant post brought to you by BAReFO0t
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Who writes these articles?
Perhaps thos who understand the difference between a hydrogen anion and an electron? I know I am going out on a limb here, but that's probably it.
So, what they're saying, is: (Score:2)
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They have no lazah death machines in CERN, lazah death machines are at Eupraxia http://www.eupraxia-project.eu... [eupraxia-project.eu] and ELI https://eli-laser.eu/ [eli-laser.eu]
Dilbert builds a linear accelerator .... (Score:1)
Dilbert builds a linear accelerator ....
https://dilbert.com/strip/1994... [dilbert.com]
Version numbers (Score:2)
Linac 4 replacing Linac 2? What king of versioning is that? Powers of 2?
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Linac 4 replacing Linac 2? What king of versioning is that? Powers of 2?
Linac 3 is only used to accelerate heavy ions, it was used together with Linac 2 and will still continue to work in parallel with Linac 4.
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Linac 4 replacing Linac 2? What king of versioning is that?
The versioning you use to replace and decommission Linac 2 while not be confused with the very much existing an operational Linac 3 sitting in the other room.
https://home.cern/science/acce... [home.cern]
I mean if there's one thing you can take home from TFS itself is that CERN has more than one particle accelerating machine.
Save it for the hungry and oppressed. (Score:1)
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Let's start by cutting military spending which is thousands of times bigger than the budget of all scientific research combined.
Tiresome (Score:2)
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No, because everyone who's not clueless and ignorant like you knows that they are not running the same experiment over and over.
Any evidence of supersymmetry yet? (Score:2)
Not the year (Score:2)
Humorbot 5.0 (Score:2)
So I said, "Super-collider? I just met her! ...And then they built the Super-collider.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]