The superconducting magnets in a 27 km tunnel under Geneva and the Pays de Gex were switched on again in March, after which came some fine-tuning and preparatory studies, plus that incident with the pigeon pine marten. Now, the news we all wanted to hear from CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Frédérick Bordry:
The LHC is running extremely well. We now have an ambitious goal for 2016, as we plan to around six times more data than in 2015.
Remember, more data means that the uncertainties due to statistical noise shrink, and any real signal of anything new and exciting stands out more clearly. In particular we would very much like to know whether this bump or maybe this one are actually new subatomic particles, like this one was, or whether they will fade away on closer inpection, like this one and many others have before them.
The start of the 2016 Physics Run is declared.
The energy is the same as last year – 13 TeV (Tera-electronVolts), so in principle we have been here before. But while every increase in energy opens up more physics landscape – allows us to see smaller distances and heavier fundamental particles – last year we only got enough data for a quick fly-by. This time the aim is to do a proper survey. That’s what Bordry’s ‘six times more’ target will get us.
Pardon me if this article sounds a little breathless. As Fabiola Gianotti, CERN Director General puts it:
The restart of the LHC always brings with it great emotion
In my case that is mostly excitement. It should be a good year; maybe, the best.
The press release is here.
Jon Butterworth’s book Smashing Physics is available as “Most Wanted Particle” in Canada & the US and was shortlisted for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.
