Dec 23, 2009

Monday, 23 November 2009, marked the first particle beam collision inside the large detectors of the LHC. ALICE saw its first collisions at an energy of 900 GeV, enabling it to check for correct operation of the 18 large detectors which comprise it. Since 27 November, with just a few days worth of data, the collaboration has even published an article confirming some existing measurements.

The group from the IRFU, who are responsible for the dimuon arms, had to await more stable beam conditions in order to see their detectors reacting to the data coming from the collisions and, on 6 December, all the gaseous detectors were able to be powered up. The traces from the first muons could be successfully reconstructed, to the great satisfaction to all the team. They are now eager to begin collecting more data after the planned restart in February 2010.

 

Retour en haut