Martin Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 A mechanical failure resulted in a large helium leak around midday Friday (yesterday) in sector 34. The mechanical failure is presumed due to a bad electrical connection between two magnets. The magnets carry high current, so if a part of the circuit loses superconductivity and develops resistance, it can quickly heat and blow. CERN press release: http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR09.08E.html The repair is expected to be quick (a few days at most.) What will take time, and will cause at least a two month delay, is that sector 34 will have to be warmed up first (to permit opening for repair) and then cooled down again---to restore superconductivity. It is the warming up and cooling down that takes time. I would guess that collisions will be put off until next year---hopefully early in the year, perhaps right after the winter break. This is sad and frustrating news, but it is remarkable how well the engineering has gone in general, and how little delay there has been, given the complexity of the project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
throng Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 A mechanical failure resulted in a large helium leak around midday Friday (yesterday) in sector 34. The mechanical failure is presumed due to a bad electrical connection between two magnets. The magnets carry high current, so if a part of the circuit loses superconductivity and develops resistance, it can quickly heat and blow. CERN press release: http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR09.08E.html The repair is expected to be quick (a few days at most.) What will take time, and will cause at least a two month delay, is that sector 34 will have to be warmed up first (to permit opening for repair) and then cooled down again---to restore superconductivity. It is the warming up and cooling down that takes time. I would guess that collisions will be put off until next year---hopefully early in the year, perhaps right after the winter break. This is sad and frustrating news, but it is remarkable how well the engineering has gone in general, and how little delay there has been, given the complexity of the project. G'day, I'm pretty interested in the collider. Its just a high tech, high speed, head on collision to smash things and catalogue the bits. Kind of primative in that way, but smashes are pretty exciting. I guess any valuable findings would be top secret. In finding the knowledge we seek, I hope we apply it with subtlety that's becoming. As we manipulate the fabric of space/time, creating mini black holes and completely unknown phenomena, particles that wouldn't normally exist, will we "modify" space for our convenience? (futuristically). Anyway however we apply the knowledge it will offer great insight to the universe. Here's the scientists involved on a documentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fJ6PMfnz2E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yplim Posted September 29, 2008 Share Posted September 29, 2008 there is still no finding. I hope we can find the God's particle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaynos Posted September 29, 2008 Share Posted September 29, 2008 there is still no finding. I hope we can find the God's particle. There wont be for quite a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyrisch Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 Why do people keep referring to it as the God particle? >.< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaynos Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 Why do people keep referring to it as the God particle? >.< It was once called that as a bit of a joke, and then a book was written where the editors decided against the better idea of the author to call the book "the good particle" and it just stuck... I don't like the term personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 IIRC, it's something also about how "nothing would be possible without it," like mass or us or other things. I agree with Klaynos. The term adds much unecessary obfuscation to already hard to understand work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comandante Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 they say it was a mechanical failure, but it's all a cover-up! go and check it - sector 34 disappeared completely after it was swallowed by a black hole shortly after first collision, now they need to make some replacements Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
npts2020 Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 they say it was a mechanical failure, but it's all a cover-up! go and check it - sector 34 disappeared completely after it was swallowed by a black hole shortly after first collision, now they need to make some replacements Yes, and bigfoot survived and crawled out of the crater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big314mp Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Yes, and bigfoot survived and crawled out of the crater. actually it was the yeti with high voices that someone mentioned before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Royston Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Here's an update on the progress at the LHC, from physicsworld... http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/36769 In the past week or so, seven of the LHC’s magnets (mostly 15m-long, 35 tonne “dipoles”) have been transported approximately 6 km through the 27 km LHC tunnel from the scene of the incident to a shaft on the main CERN site. From there, the magnets have been craned 50 m to the surface and taken to different locations for inspection. Some 50 magnets are expected to have to come to the surface in total, about 20 of which will not return, and the last one should be above ground before Christmas. “The incident in September was a major blow for us,” LHC operations leader Roger Bailey told Physics World. “But things are moving fast now and we can see a way ahead.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 I went down to the university last week for a free showing of a film called "The Atom Smashers" in our physics department. There were two high energy particle physics professors taking questions after the film, and one mentioned that LHC probably wouldn't turn back on until March or April. We knew there would be bumps in the road, but it's too bad they hit such a large one so early (the folks at FermiLab are probably happy to have more time to try reaching the Higgs finish line first, though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
npts2020 Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Aw, man. Now we gotta wait till spring for the end of the world? Seriously though, I thought now they had to wait till then anyway because of the amount of electricity it draws from the grid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midgetwars Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Making protons go near light speed would not create black holes. MAKING THEM CRASH WILL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted November 26, 2008 Author Share Posted November 26, 2008 The new estimate is it will be down until late summer 2009, or possibly until early 2010 http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=1290 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaNumeric Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 An email was forwarded to my department 2 or 3 days ago containing a link to an LHC guy's presentation about the damage and it said that the collider will be offline till after 2009. So that means it won't be up and running for about another 15 months Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaynos Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 Making protons go near light speed would not create black holes. MAKING THEM CRASH WILL. Nope, it wont. Move along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Severian Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Nope, it wont. Move along. How do you know? It might well do. It would be very interesting if it does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaynos Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 How do you know? It might well do. It would be very interesting if it does. OK, fair point, but we're going to fall into the "ahha they said it would destroy the world" argument if Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pangloss Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 OMG, we've lost Klaynos to a mini black hole! In mid-sentence, no less! I don't know what I'll do if it comes to Flori Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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