Largest particle accelerator in the world, launched after two years … – ABC Color

GENEVA. The largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world again start Sunday, after a two year hiatus, announced CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

This new launch of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC, for its acronym in English), located on the French-Swiss border, which includes a tunnel-shaped ring of 27 kilometers, will allow to carry out a second phase of exploration of uncharted territories of physics.

The particle accelerator, located about 100 meters underground, was to confirm the existence of the Higgs Higgs, whereby two CERN scientists got the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2012. That element, which helped explain how objects have mass, is considered as a key component of the fundamental structure of matter, known as the ” God particle “.

This Sunday at 10h41, a proton beam turned the ring of 27 km in diameter LHC in a sense, then, at 12h27, a second ran the same circuit in reverse, said CERN in a statement.

“Today, the heart of CERN will again beat the rhythm of the LHC”, welcomed Rolf Heuer , its CEO , said in a statement.

In the coming days, operators will check all systems before increasing the energy of the beams entering the LHC in its second exploration campaign.

During the two years of work stoppage, hundreds of engineers and technicians worked to repair and strengthen the particle accelerator to make it operate with greater energy, and thus allow physicists to expand their research field and confirming, or invalidate some theories.

This power increase will allow to experiment worthy of science fiction.

“The LHC is in great shape,” said Frédérick Bordry , director of accelerators and technology. “But the most important step is before us, when we bring the power of the beams to record levels,” he added.

Once you have calibrated the powerful device, the beams will be focused by magnets at low temperatures allowing protons colliding.

This process allow the LHC work with an energy of 13 tera (VTE), ie for each 6.5 TeV beams circulating in opposite directions in the ring, almost double what was achieved in the previous stage. The result are short and small but intense collisions, recorded by four laboratories installed along the big ring.

The fragments resulting from collisions can contain traces of other subatomic particles, say the scientists.

Some speculate that the experiences allow make unexpected discoveries. Researchers now explore, among other things, the enigmatic dark matter and quark-gluon plasma.

The dark, invisible matter makes up most of the universe, but can only be detected by its gravitational effects explains CERN on your website.