LHC fires 1.18TeV particle beam

The LHC primes itself for full-blown testing.

The LHC has caused many people to fear for their lives, become more excited than they've ever been and has even managed to eke out a collective 'meh' from many communities worldwide, but the recent announcement that it has resumed testing is bound to raise a few interested eyebrows.

While the full head-on collision of small particles still isn't being tested due to the recently-repaired sections of the machine undergoing reliability testing, the beam itself has been given a run-through at the first level of power, 1.18TeV. A TeV, or teraelectronvolt, is the same as a million million electronvolts. In other words; a huge amount of energy.

This beam has been successfully test-fired around the LHC's immense diameter, allowing technicians the time needed to calibrate the detection equipment in preparation for full testing starting next year.

Perhaps more impressive is that the beam energy will be raised from the current 1.18TeV to a maximum of 7.5TeV - causing over 14TeV of energy to collide in one spectacular moment.

The Higgs Boson is one step closer to being found now that the LHC is relatively repaired and ready to go; the only questions that remain unanswered are whether even the LHC will prove enough to find it, or even if it exists at all.

Head over to arstechnica to read a little more about the LHC.

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31 Comments

Mademan Dec 1, 2009 5:17 PM	I quite like that last paragraph. "they'll find it. Assuming they'be built the right machine. And that it works. And that what they're looking for exists..."
TheFrunj Dec 1, 2009 5:24 PM	That's why scientists only make "theories"; even if we find evidence that supports them, we might be misinterpreting the evidence - and the truth could be something different entirely! We're only human, after all :) -JR
?hee? Dec 1, 2009 6:25 PM	The question still remains...can it run crysis...?
Metasynaptic Dec 1, 2009 8:05 PM	That image makes me think: 'Now withness the POWER, of this FULLY ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station! Commander, you may fire when ready.'
n00bz0r Dec 1, 2009 8:32 PM	LoL @ Meta. I'll bet we'll start to get our conspiracy theories about this device soon enough. LHC's working? It must be the end of the world.
pkroeze Dec 1, 2009 8:42 PM	wonder what would happen to you if you were standing in it when one of those beams was fired, would you just melt from the heat, or explode like the electric guns in district 9 or come out super human on the other side(i vote option 3)lol. but i bet you this was totally funded by the military powers and is primarily to find new ways to kill people. maybe they'll discover a way to superheat the air in a 2 metre radius at an exact location.
broke123 Dec 1, 2009 8:44 PM	that's one expensive device to build based on a theory.
Bundywow Dec 1, 2009 10:52 PM	It is based on fact Broke, they use it as a tool to test theory's. Also the term theory is used differently in science then in normal English language a scientific theory. In day to day language theory is normally used replaceable with "idea" or "possibility" in science this would be a hypothesis and in science these 2 terms are not interchangeable. In science theory is the best explanation of a phenomena or 'mechanic' based on observable and testable facts and evidence. Observable and testable are crucial to the term scientific theory. LHC can create and test (experiment) with a mechanic that is KNOWN as FACT to exist to exist even though we do not understand its true nature. The purpose of something like this or indeed any experiment is to learn more about it. This is Scientific Theory and it is worlds different to theory as used in day to day language.
Metasynaptic Dec 1, 2009 11:04 PM	Theories in science are 'more or less' fact until disproven.
tantryl Dec 2, 2009 12:14 AM	A TeV, or teraelectronvolt, is the same as a million million electronvolts. In other words; a huge amount of energy. Um, no. Volts, yes, lots of potential power (assuming a reasonable current). Electron volts? No. Just... no. From teh CERN glossary: Electronvolt (eV) A unit of energy or mass used in particle physics. One eV is extremely small, and units of a million electronvolts, MeV, or thousand million electronvolts, GeV, are more common. The latest generation of particle accelerators reaches up to several million million electronvolts, TeV. One TeV is about the energy of motion of a flying mosquito.
Bundywow Dec 2, 2009 12:29 AM	i guess the term is relative this kind of energy / mass of the object accelerated is massive.
tantryl Dec 2, 2009 12:55 AM	Indeed. An incredibly high energy for a insanely small object. But the phrase In other words; a huge amount of energy really does need that relativistic framing to make any sense, which just isn't there.
Elfarch Dec 2, 2009 1:14 AM	But it still needs more power than my fridge to set it off. :{)
Elfarch Dec 2, 2009 1:15 AM	Ooops, and keep it on track round the circuit.
Metasynaptic Dec 2, 2009 7:58 AM	Commander, fire the flying mosquito cannon. Wipe them out, all of them.
DiStOrTeD Dec 2, 2009 8:08 AM	@meta "It's not very effective"
Metasynaptic Dec 2, 2009 9:17 AM	I have to admit, that for all the money they spent, the LHC is a rather poor attempt and a planet killing weapon. Tsk.
Metasynaptic Dec 2, 2009 9:18 AM	*at a plannet killer. WTB: spell checker for posting.
qwakqwak Dec 2, 2009 11:06 AM	its need to be more deadly, something along the lines of "we will raise the temperature of the earth 1,000,000 degrees a day for five days" <---futurama
wlayton27 Dec 2, 2009 1:06 PM	Tantryl's "energy of motion of a flying mosquito" bit was brilliant. But remember that this energy (potential) is determined solely by a Hamiltonian (quantum mechanics operator) ... basically it's the energy from the momentum of a single sub-atomic particle in micro-gravity. E=mc^2 kinna' stuff... E^2 = (pc)^2 + (mc^2)^2 [where "p" is a reference to particle momentum] More sauce for the curious: http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/252/particle_creation.html
thesorehead Dec 2, 2009 1:19 PM	The huge structure is still necessary to steer and accelerate the beam with the precision necessary for experiments like this. But I had no idea that a TeV was that low - I knew it wasn't much, but to think that people were suing CERN for possibly creating Earth-destroying mini-black holes is really absurd now. My 7 year old sister performs a higher-energy collision each time she hits the ball in totem-tennis.
seab4ss Dec 2, 2009 4:49 PM	^Lol at the totem tennis comparison... But srsly, when should i be expecting some new data units through LHC@Home?
greycat Dec 2, 2009 6:56 PM	The LHC was built to answer more questions than just the existence of the Higgs boson.
Metasynaptic Dec 3, 2009 12:01 AM	True, but it is the main reason touted by the people that fund it.
SceptreCore Dec 3, 2009 1:39 AM	/rubs hands* "My Weapon is finally nearing completion!" /returns to the shadows*
tantryl Dec 3, 2009 1:58 AM	@Meta - well, that's the sound bite grab. And the organisation is wise enough to hire PR consultants. So take it with a grain of salt.
greycat Dec 3, 2009 2:44 PM	@Tantryl for mentioning soundbite grabs: If Atomicans are considered a suitable audience for science retweets disguised as news (this news is a week old, what's with that anyway?), why do we get the dumbed down version? So much for appealing to geeks. This makes me cringe.
TheFrunj Dec 4, 2009 10:50 AM	Meta is correct, indeed the most publicised use of the LHC is to find the Higgs Boson, however nowhere in the article was it mentioned that it was the sole purpose of the device :) greycat, if you find the news on the site untimely, perhaps there are other outlets that would suit you better. We do what we can, given the staff and time constraints. -JR
greycat Dec 4, 2009 3:12 PM	Gee, and all this time I was thinking this was a science news site.
Mojorising Dec 7, 2009 3:11 AM	Im going to start stockpiling ammo, medpacks and power modules before the Combine invasion. Also I call dibs on Alex.
Argotha Dec 7, 2009 11:23 AM	Okay you can have Alex, but I call shotgun on Alyx. :P Moaquito my ass: -Dumping takes just 80 millionths of a second, and heats the graphite to around 750 degrees Celsius -the energy contained in a single beam could melt through 40 meters of copper in less than a second http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/Feature/128792,large-hadron-collider-but-i-just-met-her.aspx/4

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