Beams of protons are circulating in both directions around the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for the first time after a 14-month shutdown for major repairs.
CERN scientists said that the achievement, made this morning, brings the £5 billion “Big Bang machine” closer to full operation and sets the stage for it to start smashing particles within weeks.
Detectors around the LHC’s 27km (17 mile) ring have already started to pinpoint traces of collisions between particles in the beams and equipment, showing that they are in good working order. Engineers may now bring the two beams together in the next few days to stage small collisions to help scientists to calibrate the detectors, with higher-intensity collisions scheduled before Christmas. High-energy collisions for new physics are then expected in January.
The LHC was retarted on Friday. Steve Myers, CERN’s director of accelerators and technology, said that the first days of resumed operations had been an “enormous success”. “We have two beams circulating simultaneously in the LHC,” he said. “All this bodes very well for the detectors and the project that is in front of us, and will surely lead to new exciting physics discoveries.”
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