LHC Experiments to Begin Taking Data for RUN II

Tomorrow morning at 7AM CEST—midnight tonight for all you Midwesterners—experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider will begin taking data for season 2, or RUN II.

Now, after a nearly two-year-long upgrade process, the LHC is primed for experiments to commence data taking, but now at 13 teraelectronvolts (TeV)! The first run wrapped up in early 2013, only months after the July 2012 announcement of a Higgs boson discovery. The newly upgraded machine now boasts new, safer magnets, stronger connections, higher energy beams, more tightly focused beams, smaller but closer packets of particles, higher frequency RF cavities, much better cryogenics, radiation-resistant electronics, and a more secure vacuum. Check out CERN’s link below for access to a live blog, video footage throughout the day, photos, and a live webcast.

Photo on posts list by Maximilien Brice, CERN

Read the full press release →