The LHC pushed this weekend the energy of its particle beams beyond one trillion electron volts, making it the world's highest-energy particle accelerator.
The previous record was held by the Tevatron particle accelerator in Chicago.
Until now the LHC had been operating at a relatively low energy of 450 billion electron volts. On Sunday, engineers increased the energy of this "pilot beam", reaching 1.18 trillion electron volts at 2344 GMT. The previous record of 0.98 trillion electron volts has been held by the Tevatron accelerator since 2001. The LHC is eventually expected to operate at some seven trillion electron volts.
The official shedule is to increase progressively the energy of the beams and, in few days time, to start with the first collisions. Abundant collisions will be generated in the four big detectors. This collisions will allow engineers and physicists to calibrate these detectors. When the LHC is fully operational, 600 million of collisions of protons per second will be generated.
Unless anything unexpected happens, the LHC will reach next year a energy of 3,5 TeV per beam, and physicists think that,then, they will be able to get the first scientific data.
More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bigbang/
Unless anything unexpected happens, the LHC will reach next year a energy of 3,5 TeV per beam, and physicists think that,then, they will be able to get the first scientific data.
More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bigbang/
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