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First Collisions At the LHC

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the make-sure-the-world-is-still-here dept.

An anonymous reader writes "At 1:06 p.m. Central European Summer Time (CEST) today, the first protons collided at 7 TeV in the Large Hadron Collider. These first collisions, recorded by the LHC experiments, mark the start of the LHC's research program."

34 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. First events by mu22le · · Score: 5, Informative

    One of the first events seen in Atlas:
    http://imgur.com/ugwnl.png

    and in CMS:
    http://cmsdoc.cern.ch/events/snapshotA.png

    1. Re:First events by mu22le · · Score: 4, Informative

      Here are the Atlas official plots:
      http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/public/EVTDISPLAY/events.html

      CMS:
      http://cms.web.cern.ch/cms/Media/Images/EventDisplays/7_0TeVCollisions/index.html

      LHCb:
      http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1255400

      Alice:
      http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1255398?ln=en

      and finally all the CERN public photos:
      http://cdsweb.cern.ch/collection/LHC%20First%20Physics%20Photos

  2. This may be the biggest experiment of all by unity100 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    in the history of mankind. this may be the real deal. its possible that we may find the first 'entity' as described as the base of existence in Dewey B Larson's physics approach.

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    Read radical news here
    1. Re:This may be the biggest experiment of all by symes · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm not sure this is possible. I once had a beer with an almost eminent particle physicist. We kind of agreed that if this is the "ultimate" God particle then funding for particle physics could be under serious threat. What is the point in funding LHC type experiments if there are no more particles to be found? After a few more beers we hypothesised that the God particle must be constructed from, not particles, but something else a little bit like lego. And that the only way to understand this lego-like property of ultimate particles was lots of particle physicists working full time for many years on LHC-II.

    2. Re:This may be the biggest experiment of all by GooberToo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      IIRC, there are still something like six particles, which the math says MUST exist, but have never been observed. At this point those particles are as theoretical as the "god particle". Simply put, even if I don't correctly recall the number of still theoretical particles, there is still lots and lots of theoretical research yet to be done. Likely, at least many life times worth.

    3. Re:This may be the biggest experiment of all by Kierthos · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's turtles all the way down.

      --
      Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
    4. Re:This may be the biggest experiment of all by Hurricane78 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I wonder if they will go the Dark Matter/Energy way, and simply call the universe wrong. ^^

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    5. Re:This may be the biggest experiment of all by MozeeToby · · Score: 2, Interesting

      But how many of our theorized particles are actually detectable? It's all well and good to say that gravitons exist, but I don't think we're going to be building a detector the size of Jupiter and waiting around for a few thousands years to prove the idea are we? At some point we'll run out of detectable particles to detect.

    6. Re:This may be the biggest experiment of all by hey! · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Or not ... as the case may be. Computer Science has convinced me that a theory of everything might not be a practical development even if we knew all the relevant fundamental laws.

      Let's say that in principle we learn something that allows us to calculate a formula to unify gravitation and electromagnetism. We don't know whether that formula is decidable, whether its membership in the set of correct formulae can be computed. Even if it is decidable, it might belong to a complexity class like EXPTIME-COMPLETE. Even if we built a quantum computer that could give us the formula, we might not be able to conform the correctness of that formula except by appealing to that same computer.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    7. Re:This may be the biggest experiment of all by pclminion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What's this talk about "correctness?" No formula in the history of physics is known to be "correct." There are a bunch of tattered old incorrect theories which were disproved by experiment, and what's left is the best we have to work with. But to think that we could ever prove a theory "correct" displays a fundamental misunderstanding of science.

  3. Surprised by impaledsunset · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm quite suprised that I can reach Slashdot's server now that Earth is destroyed and gone.

    1. Re:Surprised by Fzz · · Score: 4, Funny

      All the other versions of you in all the other branches of spacetime are toast. The only branch of spacetime where you can still reach Slashdot's server is this one where you got really lucky.

    2. Re:Surprised by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm quite suprised that I can reach Slashdot's server now that Earth is destroyed and gone.

      Welcome to Cachedot.org, impaledsunset. Your new user ID is '6'. May all your sunsets be impaled.

    3. Re:Surprised by Mashdar · · Score: 4, Funny

      Phew. Solved that whole cat dilemma, then.

    4. Re:Surprised by moosesocks · · Score: 2, Funny

      All the other versions of you in all the other branches of spacetime are toast. The only branch of spacetime where you can still reach Slashdot's server is this one where you got really lucky.

      Ah. The many-trolls hypothesis.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
  4. Resources by tist · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can see the beam status here: http://op-webtools.web.cern.ch/op-webtools/vistar/vistars.php?usr=LHC1 and follow the webcast here http://webcast.cern.ch/lhcfirstphysics/. The webcast screen also has links to each of the experiments.

    1. Re:Resources by RDW · · Score: 5, Funny

      The live webcams are also worth checking out:

      'Camera 7: looking at the Underground Experimental Cavern from the Saleve side.'
      'Camera 8: looking out of the window of the 1st Floor of the SCX building that houses the CMS Control room.'

      http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

    2. Re:Resources by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Cyriak.co.uk was filtered where I work for cartoon violence (school). Don't know what they're doing with LHC feeds, if indeed they are there.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  5. Excellent news! by rumith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After all the years of delays and cost overruns, I'm extremely glad to see LHC entering normal operation mode. Congratulations to everybody who contributed and thank you very much for your commitment and hard work!
    P.S. The labs down the hall that participate in the collaboration will be partying tonight :)

    1. Re:Excellent news! by quenda · · Score: 4, Funny

      P.S. The labs down the hall that participate in the collaboration will be partying tonight :)

      You can tell because they have undone an extra button on their lab coats, and are drinking full-sugar coke.

  6. Coincidence by hallucinogen · · Score: 4, Funny

    While watching the webcast, just seconds away from the first collisions, the stream went down. I was like w000t! You have no idea how disappointed I was as I realized that it was just my shitty wifi..

  7. Re:Higgs by Scutter · · Score: 2, Funny

    How about now?

    I had this image in my head of them finding it in the first collision and then shutting down this hugely expensive experiment as redundant now that the HB was found.

    --

    "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
  8. We hit 7 TeV, but how much more to go? by nickfd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2010/03/30/lhc-research-program-launched-with-7-tev-collisions/ So according to that article, we did the colliding at 7 TeV and their next goal is 14 TeV in 2013, but it's not clear whether that level of 14 is equivilant to the "big bang". Does anyone know what we need to hit in energy levels to reach that?

    1. Re:We hit 7 TeV, but how much more to go? by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Informative

      Nothing is equivalent to the "big bang". The "big bang" is a singularity. 14TeV isn't even equivalent to some of the natural collisions that happen in the upper atmosphere.

      --
      Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
    2. Re:We hit 7 TeV, but how much more to go? by JohnFluxx · · Score: 5, Informative

      There isn't really a limit. You just get closer and closer to t=0.
      The big bang timeline goes roughly (listing the time when the mentioned period _ends_):

      10^-43 seconds - Planck epoch - this is where we need string theory etc. The universe is expanding really really really fast. Frigging fast. This is called 'inflation'
      10^-36 seconds - Grand unification epoch - this is where gravity starts to become seperate from the other forces
      10^-12 seconds - The really-really-really-frigging-fast inflation is now over. We've now just got the normal expansion.
          --- WE ARE HERE WITH THE LHC ---
      10^-6 seconds - Higgs particles are now able to give particles mass. But too hot for quarks to combine into protons etc.
      1 second - Quarks have now formed into protons etc
      10 seconds - anti-matter is now annihalted somehow. All the protons etc have been created.
      20 minutes - Hydrogen etc is formed. We now have real atoms! (Nucleosynthesis)

    3. Re:We hit 7 TeV, but how much more to go? by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How fast is "really really really fast" in the planck epoch? Would I be right in assuming that prior to 10^-6 seconds there was zero mass in the universe, and therefore everything could travel many times the speed of light?

      Forgive me if it's a dumb question; Physics major, I aren't.

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    4. Re:We hit 7 TeV, but how much more to go? by Tyler+Durden · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just curious, but what source are you using for this timeline? I've heard the same thing described with small variations between them here and there, and I'm trying to figure out which is believed to be the most accurate of them so far. In the one I remember the most, all of the initial hydrogen and helium nuclei (with tiny amounts of heavier atomic nuclei) were formed within the first three minutes of the initial bang. Things didn't cool off enough for the electrons to join them to form atoms until around 380,000 years after t0.

      --
      Happy people make bad consumers.
    5. Re:We hit 7 TeV, but how much more to go? by Odin's+Raven · · Score: 2, Funny

      You might as well ask whether a rock is an introvert or an extrovert.

      Definitely introverts. I've sat and talked to rocks all day long, and they hardly ever say a thing back. Talk about shy. Way different than daisies - those things never stop chattering. Total extroverts. (What's that you say, Mr. Day-Glo Green Squirrel? Another tab of acid? Oh, I really couldn't. Well, okay, if you're sure there's enough for everyone.)

      --
      A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
  9. Re:Why not "strangelets"? by impaledsunset · · Score: 2, Informative

    Strangelets are hypothetical, nobody has ever seen, so they might not exist at all. LHC is less likely to produce strangelets than RHIC, but I can't read the paper to see why, but it has something to do with the different nature of the collisions. The energies are too low for production of micro black holes, though.

  10. First collisions...not involving a baguette by ruark · · Score: 5, Funny

    The title could be a little more precise. This is not technically the first collision at the LHC. http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/11/06/0824213/LHC-Shut-Down-Again-mdash-By-Baguette-Dropping-Bird

  11. More than 1h of stable beam... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...and no blackhole yet !

    http://mediaarchive.cern.ch/MediaArchive/Photo/Public/2010/1003062/1003062_07/1003062_07-A4-at-144-dpi.jpg :)

  12. MIT Ph.D now out of work by Nighttime · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hangs up his orange suit and crowbar.

    --
    I've got a fever and the only prescription is more COBOL.
  13. First Collisions at the LHC by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whoever it was, I hope they're insured.

  14. Re:Antichrist!! by david_thornley · · Score: 2, Funny

    You'd think he might of had a bit of foresight and brought a rain of frogs or an earth shattering meteor down upon us before we got to the LHC elementary particle level of curiosity.

    Yeah, a pigeon with a piece of bread just doesn't seem to measure up to Old Testament standards.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes