
When fully operational, the massive $10 billion USD machine, operated by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (known by its French acronym CERN), will attempt to recreate the conditions around one trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.
The first beam of photons was sent around the machine's 27 kilometre circuit last week in a successful first stage test, however power was lost for a short time later, causing the vital cooling system to go down.
However, CERN scientists are confident the problem has now been fixed and are ready to resume circulating photons around the complex. Beams will be fired in the opposite direction next week, and "low-intensity" collisions will be smashed together inside the LHC's four detectors.
The Times newspaper reports that, while the energy achieved will be a mere six percent of the collider's capability, it could be a vital step forward for the experiment. The collisions will allow monitoring scientists to test the detectors ahead of atom smashing at 70 percent capability, which is due to begin next month.
The head of cryogenics at CERN, Laurent Tavian, told the newspaper that the cooling problems have been ironed out and the groundbreaking experiment is ready to resume.
“The plan is now to capture the second beam, and once both beams are ready and captured we can start to do collisions,” said Dr. Tavian. “We should now be able to capture the second beam at the end of this week, so we have two beams circulating at the same time. If all goes well, then next week we could have the first collisions in the machine.”
As well as giving scientists a greater insight into the conditions experienced at the beginnings of our universe, physicists hope to uncover evidence of the elusive Higgs boson, the theoretical so-called "God particle".
For a range of images, diagrams and video clips relating to the Large Hadron Collider experiment, click here for The Tech Herald's specific coverage.
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