11 September 2008
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Large Hadron Collider Up And Running!
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, intended to collide opposing beams of protons (one type of hadron) charged with high energy. Its main purpose is to explore the validity and limitations of the Standard Model, the current theoretical picture for particle physics. It is theorized that the collider will confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, the observation of which could confirm the predictions and missing links in the Standard Model, and could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass.
The LHC was recently completed and was run for the first time today. First beams were shot only a small way through, and when that worked without any problems a beam was shot all the way round which also worked perfectly without a hitch. The first high-energy collisions are planned to take place after the official unveiling on October 21.
The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and lies underneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. It is funded by and built in collaboration with over eight thousand physicists from over eighty-five countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.
