Large Hadron Collider moves to 8TeV collision energy
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The Large Hadron Collider at CERN has started operating at a higher energy level, a move which the organisation says will increase the machine's discovery potential 'considerably'.
Two 4TeV proton beams have been brought into collision at four interaction points and the beams have been declared 'stable'. The 8TeV collision energy is a world record, says CERN.
"The experience of two good years of running at 3.5TeV per beam gave us the confidence to increase the energy for this year without any significant risk to the machine," said Steve Myers, CERN's director for accelerators and technology. "Now it's over to the experiments to make the best of the increased discovery potential we're delivering them."
The higher energy level makes it several times more likely to find certain hypothetical particles. CERN says some of these particles – for example those predicted by supersymmetry – would be produced much more copiously at the higher energy.
Higher energy will also help the search for the Higgs boson. If it exists, the Higgs boson will also be produced more copiously at 8TeV, but background processes that mimic the Higgs signal will also increase. CERN says that means a full year's running will be necessary to convert the 'tantalising hints' seen last year into a discovery or to rule out the Standard Model Higgs particle altogether.
