Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, are celebrating after achieving another world first at 12:06 BST today (30 March 2010) — proton collisions at 7 trillion electron volts (TeV). This significant milestone, the highest energies ever achieved by a man-made particle accelerator (3.5 TeV per proton beam), marks the start of a two-year campaign that could see scientists make new discoveries about the Universe and answer some of the unresolved questions in physics.

Professor John Womersley, particle physicist and Director of Science Programmes at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds the UK particle physics program, said: “Achieving collisions at 7 TeV marks the start of a new era in physics research. The LHC aims to explore the nature of the Universe just moments after the Big Bang and will increase our understanding of how it was created, what it is made of and how it will evolve. Over the coming months scientists will use data collected at these high energies first to cross-check data and theories from previous experiments, and then to search for particles and forces which we know must exist in the universe but which have never been observed. In the next couple of years this could lead to the discovery of a new law of physics called supersymmetry — which could explain the dark matter that seems to dominate our universe — and even to the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson particle.”

CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said: “It’s a great day to be a particle physicist. A lot of people have waited a long time for this moment, but their patience and dedication is starting to pay dividends. The LHC has a real chance over the next two years of discovering supersymmetric particles and possibly giving insights into the composition of about a quarter of the Universe.”

CERN will run the LHC at 7 TeV for 18 months to two years to deliver enough data to the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus), CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) and LHCb (LHC beauty) experiments to make significant advances across a wide range of physics areas. As soon as scientists have ‘re-discovered’ the known Standard Model particles, a necessary precursor to looking for new physics, the LHC experiments will then start the systematic search for the Higgs boson.

With the amount of data expected, called one inverse femtobarn by physicists, the combined analysis of ATLAS and CMS will be able to explore a wide mass range, and there’s even a chance of discovering the Higgs boson if it has a mass near 160 GeV (gigaelectron volts). If it’s much lighter or very heavy, it will be more difficult to find in the LHC’s first run.

For supersymmetry, ATLAS and CMS will each have enough data to double today’s existing sensitivity to certain new discoveries. Experiments today are sensitive to some supersymmetric particles with masses up to 400 GeV. Such a high data volume at the LHC pushes the discovery range up to 800 GeV.

Even at the more exotic end of the LHC’s potential discovery spectrum, this LHC run will extend the current reach by a factor of two. LHC experiments will be sensitive to new massive particles indicating the presence of extra dimensions up to masses of 2 TeV, where today’s reach is around 1 TeV.

Professor Jon Butterworth from the University College London explained: “There is a whole new landscape of physics to explore at these energies. Somewhere in that landscape nature has hidden the way forces are unified and how particles get mass. Today the LHC gets us over the horizon and we start our exploration!”

Professor Jordan Nash, from Imperial College London added: “For the last two decades, we have been preparing to make this leap into exploring a new realm of nature. Our studies of the Universe and the particles we have been able to produce in accelerators up until now, show us that there are important pieces missing in our understanding of the basic building blocks of the universe. Operating the LHC at these energies much higher than ever achieved before, will allow us to search for these and find out more about what our universe consists of. Our first taste of data at low energy operation of the LHC has shown us that our detectors are ready to capture and analyze the data with exquisite precision and we are all standing by ready to see what nature has in store for us.”

The UK is one of the biggest contributors to the LHC project providing vital hardware, computing and scientific knowledge. Through STFC, the UK has invested more than #500 million in the LHC through its subscription to CERN and direct funding to university groups. UK scientists are involved in all four major LHC experiments and make a key contribution through STFC’s GridPP project to the machine’s Computing Grid which will distribute and analyze the 15 petabytes or 20,000,000 CDs worth of data produced each year between different countries and institutions.

The STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire is the central node — a Tier 1 Centre — for the UK’s Grid. As a Tier 1 Centre, it will disseminate processed data to 19 regional Grids across the country providing 15% of the total processing power needed for the LHC. As well as marking the start of the physics program at the LHC, today (30 March) celebrates the official opening of the UK’s Tier 1 centre at RAL.

As a result of STFC’s subscription to CERN, UK industry has also played its part in the construction of the accelerator and continues to win lucrative commercial contracts across a wide range of activities — from computing, electronics and vacuum technology, to technical support work and cleaning facilities. For example, Taylor Woodrow was involved in the design of the civil engineering for the tunnels and caverns, TESLA supplied some of the magnets, and more recently Viglen was awarded a contract to provide a substantial amount of the high performance computing and storage equipment needed to handle the unprecedented amounts of data that will be generated by the LHC.

Once the LHC has completed this long run of 18-24 months, there will be a long shutdown of roughly a year during which the LHC will be upgraded and prepared for running at its design energy of 14 TeV. Traditionally, CERN has operated its accelerators on an annual cycle, running for seven to eight months with a four to five month shutdown each year. Being a cryogenic machine operating at very low temperature, the LHC takes about a month to bring up to room temperature and another month to cool down. A four-month shutdown as part of an annual cycle no longer makes sense for such a machine, so CERN has decided to move to a longer cycle with longer periods of operation accompanied by longer shutdown periods when needed.

Rolf Heuer continued: “Two years of continuous running is a tall order both for the LHC operators and the experiments, but it will be well worth the effort. By starting with a long run and concentrating preparations for 14 TeV collisions into a single shutdown, we’re increasing the overall running time over the next three years, making up for lost time and giving the experiments the chance to make their mark.”

Notes to Editors

* CERN is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, with an annual budget of more than #650 million.

* The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is CERN’s newest facility. It is set in a 27 km tunnel underground crossing the border between France and Switzerland near Geneva.

* The LHC provided first collisions in late November 2009, after about 20 years of extremely challenging design and construction work for both the accelerator and the experiments.

* STFC pays the UK contribution to the budget, which is determined on a formula basis related to net national income. The current UK share of the CERN budget is 14.6%, #95M a year.

* The Higgs Boson particle was proposed by British theoretical physicist Professor Peter Higgs as a solution to one of the most basic puzzles in particle physics — why some particles possess mass and others do not, such as the photon, the particle of light which is massless. (NB: in physics, mass is not the same as weight and the words must not be interchanged). It will also test the predictions of a number of theories and might uncover evidence of dark matter, supersymmetry or extra dimensions.

* Within the LHC, two beams of protons (which belong to the family of particles known as hadrons) are accelerated to near the speed of light and then collided head on at one of four experimental points. In each collision two bunches of 100 billion particles meet. Where the particles crash into each other, new ones are formed, spraying out in all directions around the collision point. Tracking the particles in the four detectors will test the ‘Standard Model of Particle Physics’ and either verify key arguments, or force the development of new theories

* Fifteen UK universities, plus the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, have been involved in construction work for the LHC. The 15 universities are: Birmingham, Bristol, Brunel, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College,, Oxford, Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester, Queen Mary, Royal Holloway, Sheffield, University College London. Additional universities are involved in the theory work that underpins the LHC.

News from CERN and images from the day will be available from CERN’s website: * http://press.web.cern.ch/press/

Images showing UK people and equipment for the LHC are available from the STFC website: * www.stfc.ac.uk/imagelibrary

Videos about the LHC: * http://cdsweb.cern.ch/collection/Videos?ln=en

Follow LHC progress on Twitter: * http://twitter.com/cern

Contacts:
Karen Coles
STFC Press Officer
+44 (0)7092 982664
karen.coles@stfc.ac.uk

Julia Maddock
Manager External Communications
+44 (0)7901 514975
julia.maddock@stfc.ac.uk

A wide range of UK experts are available for comment, via the press office.

Science and Technology Facilities Council

The Science and Technology Facilities Council ensures the UK retains its leading place on the world stage by delivering world-class science; accessing and hosting international facilities; developing innovative technologies; and increasing the socio-economic impact of its research through effective knowledge exchange.

The Council has a broad science portfolio including Astronomy, Particle Physics, Particle Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics, Space Science, Synchrotron Radiation, Neutron Sources and High Power Lasers. In addition the Council manages and operates three internationally renowned laboratories:

* The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire
* The Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire
* The UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh

The Council gives researchers access to world-class facilities and funds the UK membership of international bodies such as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), the Institute Laue Langevin (ILL), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the European organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) and the European Space Agency (ESA). It also funds UK telescopes overseas on La Palma, Hawaii, Australia and in Chile, and the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, which includes the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory.

The Council distributes public money from the Government to support scientific research.