LHC shut down until early spring

Professor Peter Higgs will have to wait at least a few additional seasons to find out whether his long-held theory on how matter has mass is right.

That's because officials announced Tuesday that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which could confirm the existence of a theoretical particle name after Higgs, will remain shut down until at least early spring.

Click image for gallery on the Large Hadron Collider.

(Credit: Maximilien Brice for CERN)

The LHC, the world's largest particle collider, is located in a nearly 17-mile-long circular tunnel along the French-Swiss border about 330 feet underground. Built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (or CERN), it promises to push forward theories of particle physics, such as the Higgs Boson, and the fundamental building blocks of all things.

The collider was officially launched on September 10 when the first particle beam was successfully sent around the full circuit. However, it hit a major glitch last week when a mechanical failure triggered a helium leak and forced a shutdown for what was initially reported to be at least two months.

Now it looks like the investigation and repairs won't be finished in time to restart the LHC before CERN's obligatory winter maintenance period, pushing the restart date back to early spring 2009, officials said.

CERN Director General Robert Aymar said in a press release that the delay was "undoubtedly a psychological blow," but added that the success with the first beam operation was testimony to the years of preparation and the skills of teams involved. "I have no doubt that we will overcome this setback with the same degree or rigor and application."

It appears the helium link was caused by a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets. But the magnets involved can't even be opened up for investigation until the sector is brought to room temperature, which will take three or four weeks, CERN said.

Peter Limon, who was responsible for commissioning the Tevatron superconducting accelerator in the U.S., offered perspective by adding that such problems are to be expected given the size and complexity of the LHC.

"Events occur from time to time that temporarily stop operations, for shorter or longer periods, especially during the early phases," he said in the press statement.

The LHC experiments involve accelerating two beams of subatomic particles--called hadrons--in opposite directions to more than 99.9 percent the speed of light. Smashing the beams together will create showers of new particles for physicists to study using special detectors. On a microscale, it will re-create conditions that existed during the first billionth of a second of the Big Bang.

[Ouch!]

"Will they ever catch the ?wretched? smashed particles?"

http://feww.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/lhc-champaign-science-three-legged-chickens/

[chuchucuhi]

Well I wouldn't really expect anything this big and complicated to not have its hitches out of the starting gate maybe there's a good conspiracy theory that it was sabotage that would be an interesting read in the meantime.

[Falling-Inferno]

I hope they get it fixed it could make history if we found something smaller than what we already know. Or how to create a black hole would be good so we can test to see if matter is really destroyed.
~Falling-Inferno

[G8ALR]

I suspect that the problem was caused by a Helium LEAK not a link!

[atmajnan]

Sub:UNDEFINED UNIVERSE IN CONFUSION_CHAOS
Presently Cosmology is undergoing REVISION and BIG-BANG,Dark Matter,DARK ENERGY and Blackholes are all under question.
Evolution needs to catch up with creation.
Undefined universe lands in confusion and utter chaos
SCIENCE AWAY FROM NATURE AND PHILOSOPHY
How to define universe from science of philosophy ?
How to define POORNAM- Complete comprehension towards energy concept
How to define dependant NATURE and Functions ?
How to define PRIME CONCEPTS to PRESENT DAY Space-Scientists and cosmologists ?
How to define YOGA in NATURE- NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
How to define cosmic function of the universe !!
COSMOS QUEST ?
NOBEL LAUR.ALFVEN-1984
CARL SAGAN-1980
CAN VEDAS SHOW DIRECTION TO HELP SCIENCE ADVANCEMENT
BACKGROUND:
CMBR-COSMIC MICROWAVE
BIG-BANG CONTRADICTIONS
BLACK-HOLE- QUESTIONS
DARK MATTER- ??
DARK ENERGY ?UNKNOWN??
CONCENTRATION, MEDITATION AND DEDICATION ARE THE KEYS FOR PROGRESS INDEX-
PROTECT COPY RIGHTS AND PROJECT COSMOLOGY- VEDAS INTERLINKS AS PRIDE -
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Vidyardhi Nanduri