The largest accelerator in the world, the Lhc (Large Hadron Collider), has been re-ignited at CERN.
This was announced by CERN of Geneva.
After a technical break of more than three years, during which the car was upgraded, the accelerator is again active and two beams of protons have started to circulate in the 27 kilometer ring.
A run-in period begins now that could last until June-July, when the LHC will be ready to produce new data.
In the accelerator, in which Italy participates with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn), two beams of protons have traveled, in opposite directions, an entire circuit of the ring along 27 kilometers at low energy, the same with the which were injected, equal to 450 billion electron volts (450 GeV), in opposite directions.
"These first particle beams represent the successful restart of the accelerator after the great work that was done during the long hiatus," notes Rhodri Jones, head of CERN's department for particle beam operations.
During the three-year hiatus, maintenance and updating work was carried out on the machine which involved both the accelerator itself and the large experiments located at the collision points of the particle beams.
Thanks to these changes, "the Lhc will be able to work at higher energies" and "make a significant increase in data available," says Mike Lamont, director of accelerators and technology at CERN.
