An update… Two circulating beams bring first collisions in the LHC. Every time we have a post about the LHC the crazy comes out of the woodwork proclaiming the world is going to end if the machine is operational, it didn’t, so let’s call a bonkers truce, ok? :)
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.
There’s more here too…
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