World's largest atom smasher back on track after transformer fix

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-19 13:58

The world's newest and largest atom smasher had to take a weeklong break after a spectacular start because of the failure of a massive transformer, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said Thursday.

The world's largest superconducting solenoid magnet, part of the experiment in smashing atoms, September 10. The world's largest particle collider has been stopped, a week after its startup, as a result of an electrical fault, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said. [Agencies]

The faulty, 30-ton transformer has been replaced and the ring in the 27-kilometer (17-mile) circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border has been cooled back down to near absolute zero, the most efficient operating temperature, said a statement by CERN, as the organization is known.

The Large Hadron Collider was launched September 10, when scientists circled a beam of protons in a clockwise direction at the speed of light. That was followed by a counterclockwise beam.

"Several hundred orbits" were made, said the statement.

On the evening of September 11, scientists were able to control the counterclockwise beam with equipment that keeps the protons bunched tightly and ready for collisions before the transformer failed and the system was shut down, the statement said.

Now that the transformer has been replaced and the equipment rechilled, a similar attempt is expected shortly to tighten the clockwise beam, it said.

The machine is still on track to collide the beams traveling in opposite directions within coming weeks, CERN said.

The Large Hadron Collider is designed to collide protons in the beams so that they shatter and reveal more about the makeup of matter and the universe.