Large Hadron Collider re-launched

TANK. April 5, 2015. Collision of particles with a collimator

After a two-year break, scientists from CERN re-launched the Large Hadron Collider. Today, at about 10:47 CET (12:47 Moscow time), the first beam of protons passed through a 27-kilometer tunnel at a speed close to the speed of light. At 12:27 CET (14:27 Moscow time) a second particle beam was launched in the opposite direction. The injection energy in both cases was 450 GeV.

The launch took place a week later than planned due to a short circuit in the circuits of one of the superconducting magnets. The cause of the circuit was a metal object that fell into the pipe that connects the electromagnet to the diode box. The fault was eliminated from the first time, sending a pulse of strong electric current, he evaporated a metal particle.


© AP / KEYSTONE / Martial Trezzini
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The BAC was launched on September 10, 2008. In subsequent years, petabytes of experimental data were collected, on the basis of which it was still possible to prove with a high degree of probability the existence of the Higgs boson - the “particle of god”, which is responsible for the presence of mass in all other particles. In 2013, physicists Peter Higgs and Francois Engler, who predicted the existence of this particle, were awarded the Nobel Prize.

Today, after a successful launch, CERN Director Rolf Heuer congratulated engineers and scientists: “Thank you very much ... and now the hard work begins!” He said .


So, on April 5, 2015, the BAC was successfully launched. Now a real collision was not planned. At least for another month, the beams will drive without collisions, gradually increasing the injection energy. But in early June, real experiments will begin with energies greater than those that were before the modernization of the LHC. The collision energy of proton beams has been increased from 8 to 13 TeV, which will open up new research opportunities.


© ALICE / CERN

Over the past two years, a serious inspection and repair of the LHC has been carried out: 18 out of 1232 superconducting bipolar magnets were replaced in the collider, which correct the direction and focus of the particle beams along the accelerator. The remaining magnets were equipped with an improved cooling protection system. A new system has been introduced to better control the dissipation of this energy in order to avoid damage to the collider. The cryogenic system has been improved, allowing the magnets to operate at low temperatures.

With the help of the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, physicists hope to make many more discoveries by checking the stability of the Standard Model. One of the goals of the second launch of the LHC will be the search for dark matter. In 2015, scientists will explore the possibilities of the upgraded colossus of the LHC, and in 2016-2018 they plan to conduct real experiments.

The updated collider will work for three years, until a new technical stop to test equipment.