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New world record for CERN's LHC accelerator

A world record was broken this week at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland, when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest particle accelerator, accelerated its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV (a teraelectronvo...

A world record was broken this week at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland, when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest particle accelerator, accelerated its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV (a teraelectronvolt is equivalent to a million million electronvolts), beating the previous record of 0.98 TeV set by a US accelerator. Operation of the LHC has just resumed after a year-long suspension triggered by a transformer malfunction in its cooling system which led to a leak of helium. CERN, the world's largest and leading laboratory for particle physics, originally intended to have the LHC functional again by April, but this date was eventually put back to November. 'We are still coming to terms with just how smoothly the LHC commissioning is going,' said Rolf Heuer, director of CERN. 'It is fantastic. However, we are continuing to take it step by step and there is still a lot to do before we start physics in 2010. I'm keeping my champagne on ice until then.' Particle accelerators were designed for state-of-the-art physics research into the nature of matter. Colliding opposing particle beams of protons will help to answer some of the most fundamental questions on the laws of nature and matter, and shed light on conditions in the universe immediately after the 'big bang', which is widely held to be the origin of the universe. On 20 November, beams were injected into the LHC and over the following days the operators circulated beams around the ring alternately in one direction and then in the other at an injection energy of 450 gigaelectron volts (GeV). The beam lifetime was gradually increased to around 10 hours. On 23 November, the beams circulated together for the first time and the four LHC detectors recorded their first collision data. 'I was here 20 years ago when we switched on CERN's last major particle accelerator, LEP [Large Electron Positron],' said Steve Myers, CERN's accelerators and technology director. 'I thought that was a great machine to operate, but this is something else. What took us days or weeks with LEP we are doing in hours with the LHC. So far, it all augurs well for a great research programme.' Next step for the LHC is a commissioning phase, the aim of which is to increase beam intensity prior to delivering collision data, before the end of the year. Up to now, this work has been carried out using a low-intensity pilot beam, but a higher intensity beam is needed to provide more meaningful proton-proton collision rates. The current phase of commissioning is intended to ensure that the higher intensity beam can be used safely and in stable conditions. CERN is based in Geneva and is funded by its member states - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Observer status is held by India, Israel, Japan, Russia, Turkey, the US, UNESCO and the European Commission.

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