Collider | ICT magazine

Posts Tagged ‘collider’

Black holes: Win some, lose some

September 16th, 2010 | No Comments

The more they are understood, the more mysterious they become

THE black holes that get the most press these days are the microscopic sort expected to pop out of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva and, some misguidedly fear, gobble up the Earth in the process. But not every black-hole buff’s gaze has turned to the collider. Plenty of physicists still look to the skies in search for clues to the nature of what is now believed to be as humdrum a cosmic occurrence as stars and planets. Some of what they see poses more questions than it answers.

Apart from the as-yet-unobserved microscopic variety, physicists have spotted numerous telltale signs of black holes that weigh several times the mass of the sun. These are believed to be the remnants of stars that have run out of nuclear fuel and thus collapsed through the pull of their own gravity. There are also signs of the even-more-massive brethren of these star-sized black holes—monsters which are thought to weigh between 100,000 and 50 billion solar masses and found at the centres of galaxies. …

After Successful Collisions, CERN Readies Large Hadron Collider for Data Collection

April 1st, 2010 | No Comments

CERN scientists decide to skip a previously scheduled shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator that recently collided twin proton beams at 7 TeV. The successful test marked the official start of the LHC research program.
– When scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear
Research (CERN) successfully collided twin proton beams
at 7 TeV this week, it set a major milestone for the worlds biggest and most
expensive machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and marked the official start
of the LHC research pro…

The Large Hadron Collider: Phew!

March 31st, 2010 | No Comments

The LHC is now operating in earnest

EIGHTEEN months ago CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory, based near Geneva, switched on its latest toy. The toy in question was the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and it was going to find all sorts of wonderful things, ranging from the Higgs boson (which is needed to explain why mass exists in the first place) via dark matter (which is needed to explain why the universe is as massive as it is) to miniature black holes (the densest concentrations of mass possible, which journalists of a more scaremongering disposition confidently predicted would eat the Earth up as soon as the machine was switched on).

Nine days after the fanfare, however, a leak in the cooling system put things on hold and they did not restart until last November, with a few gentle collisions between low-energy protons. …

Technical Glitch Doesn’t Stop Large Hadron Collider from Setting World Record

March 31st, 2010 | No Comments

CERN scientists are calling the successful collision of proton particle beams at 7 TeV in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) historic, after an early technical glitch threatened to delay the event.
– Despite a delay in the scheduled start of high-speed proton collisions in
the Large Hadron Collider a particle accelerator operated by the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) due to technical glitches, just
after 1 p.m. Central European Time (CET), the LHC set a world record, collid…

CERN Sets Date for Record Collision in Large Hadron Collider

March 24th, 2010 | No Comments

CERN readies the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for beam collisions at 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam), marking the start of the organization’s physics program.
– Less than a week after the Large Hadron Collider, a particle
accelerator located outside Geneva operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN),
successfully circulated two 3.5 TeV proton beams and set a record for the highest energy
yet achieved in a particle accelerator, CERN …

Large Hadron Collider Sets Energy Record

March 20th, 2010 | No Comments

CERN scores another success with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), setting a record for highest energy yet achieved in a particle accelerator.
– After an initial series of setbacks related to technical glitches, the
European Organization for Nuclear Researchs (CERN) Large Hadron
Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator located outside Geneva has begun
to produce results. This week, CERN reported the LHC successfully
circulated two 3.5 TeV …

Large Hadron Collider Up Again After Power Cut

December 3rd, 2009 | No Comments

The problem-plagued Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is back up and running after a faulty cable caused a power cut.
–

The problem-plagued Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which has suffered
a series of setbacks and mechanical breakdowns, is reportedly back in
operational mode after suffering a power failure due to a blown 18 kilovolt power
connection. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (C…

The Large Hadron Collider: Big is back

November 26th, 2009 | No Comments

The world’s largest and most expensive experiment is up and running. Again

SOMETIMES the only way to crack a nut is with a sledgehammer. Such is the case with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), an experiment so grand that it spans two countries in its quest for subatomic particles so tiny that they are literally almost nothing. It was ingloriously shut down after springing a helium leak in September 2008, before it had even got properly going. If all is well over the next few days, though, it will become the most powerful particle collider in the world.

The machine lies 100 metres below the countryside, straddling the Franco-Swiss border outside Geneva. This is where CERN, the European particle-physics laboratory, has its headquarters. The LHC is housed in a circular tunnel some 27 kilometres (17 miles) around. At four points on this circle sit vast experimental halls where beams of protons, circulating at more than 99.99% of the speed of light in a vacuum comparable to that of outer space, will collide at temperatures just above absolute zero. Tens of thousands of physicists from more than 100 countries are watching to see what happens when they do so. …

CERN Restarts Large Hadron Collider

November 23rd, 2009 | No Comments

After more than a year of repairs, the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest machine, restarts in Geneva.
–

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the
Geneva-based particle physics laboratory, announced the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) is operating once again. Following more than a year of repairs, CERN
researchers said the particle accelerator, which cost $10 billion to …

Large Hadron Collider to Run at Half Power

August 8th, 2009 | No Comments

Followers of the Large Hadron Collider project run by the European Center for Nuclear Research will be pleased to know the collider will soon be back up and running. However, the LHC will run only at half power, CERN says.
– The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and highest-energy particle
accelerator, intended to cause collisions between opposing particle beams, has had
a troubled history thus far; problems leading up to and after the initial
activation of the accelerator have sullied an eagerly awaited eve…