LHC
The world's largest and most sophisticated machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will restart after March 25 following a two-year upgrade that increased its immense power by twofold.
This week, the LHC will be ready for "Run Two" that will see the machine gradually build-up its power until it operates at its "design energy," which is now nearly double the energies reached during Run One.
The restart will see the LHC's powerful beams traveling inside the machine's two pipes all the way around the LHC in both directions. Even with the beams circling the 27 kilometer long LHC, researchers don't expect to create actual collisions for another two months.
The restart will be a gradual process in which every step has to be taken carefully. Restarting the LHC after March 25 is on schedule since it was originally set for the week of March 23
Rolf Heuer, director general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research or CERN, said every single one of the connections between the LHC's 10,000 magnets that steer the proton beams in a precise circle was inspected during the maintenance.
The connections were also reinforced, "to be rock stable, even if there is a movement of the magnets when they go from cold to warm, or the other way around".
These superconducting electromagnets are chilled to -273 degrees Centigrade, which is colder than outer space to do their job.
Operations of atom smasher located near Geneva, Switzerland were halted for two years so scientists could prepare it for the accelerated energy level experiments. CERN has said the LHC will run like "a new machine".
The $10 billion LHC is the world's largest and most powerful particle collider, and the largest single machine in the world. CERN built and operates the LHC.
