This morning, near Geneva, the LHC, the "great Hadron Collider " the world's strongest particle accelerator, has launched its first protons. The Physicists, scientific objectives, including the search for Higgs boson, are ambitious in this event.
In the control room, the atmosphere is that of a launch of a space mission. Dozens of screens display tables and curves while dozens of people moving in all directions for the scan. The LHC (Large Hadron Collider), the most complex device created by humanity began to operate.
A thunderous applause erupted. The beam (the word means beam on everyone's lips), just reaching the detector Atlas. The beam was first made a complete tour of the accelerator that runs 27 kilometers below ground on the side of Geneva ...
The day is historic for this European project to 6 billion euros initiated fifteen years ago. The largest particle accelerator in the world will study the physics of very high energies, those that dominated the Universe in the earliest moments of its existence after the Big Bang.
We extensively detailed the scientific challenges of this project in a series of articles, including an interview with the physicist Aurelien Barrau. A complete file reports on the technical and physical grace and discover instrument in the coming days.
