Earlier today the Large Hadron Collider ramped up to a new energy level of 3.5 TeV, and may be only weeks away from colliding particles at this record-breaking energy. As things progress during this exciting period, you can keep track of the changes at the LHC with the same LHC Page 1 display the experts use to monitor the accelerator.
LHC accelerator engineers and physicists use Page 1 to display the overall status of the accelerator. The page changes throughout the day with the changing activity of the machine. LHC operators update the page to incorporate comments on the current task and operations mode such as preparing for beam, testing an accelerator system, or providing experimental collisions.
Today’s CERN Bulletin offers a quick guide to understanding Page 1 using a display from last night's ramp to 3.5 TeV. The Bulletin describes the main features of the display, including the status of the overall accelerator and the energy and intensity of each beam of protons.
For a more technical walkthrough, visit the LHC portal’s explanation of Page 1. The Portal breaks down two other display examples; one for beam circulation and dump and a second from an injection test. A glossary helps translate the acronyms and shorthand used by the LHC's operators in the CERN Control Centre.
This concludes our three-part LHC decoded series. Earlier this week, we described how physicists at the LHC display particle collisions at the CMS and ATLAS experiments.
by Daisy Yuhas