LHC Sees First Proton

So far so good. Not quite all the way around the ring yet, but the LHC managed to have protons going through a sector of the LHC ring a distance of ~3 km.

At 15:20 on Friday, a small bunch of protons was successfully kicked out of the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) using a pulsed magnet and sent down a 2.7 km-long transfer line towards the LHC. Then at 21:40, having spent a few hours optimizing the process, one bunch was kicked out of the transfer line into the LHC where it travelled about 3 km until it met a stopper. Clearly relieved, the operations group noted at the time: “TDI out, threading, momentum matching, beam to IR3, beer”.

The test was repeated several times on Saturday, and a similar test for protons in the other (counter clockwise) direction is planned for the weekend of August 22.

The Sept. 10 date, I'm guessing, is still the target date for protons making the complete circular trip through the whole ring.

Zz.