Tiny Big Bang: ALICE experiment restarts with lead ions

On September 26, 2023, the accelerator team at the CERN European Council for Nuclear Research in Geneva declared stable lead-beam conditions, ushering in the first data-taking campaign of lead-ion collisions in five years. ...

The four LHC experiments are getting ready for pilot beams

Since 2019, many places at CERN have been operating like beehives to complete the scheduled upgrades for the second long shutdown (LS2) of the accelerator complex. This period of intense work is now coming to an end with ...

The ALICE TPC is upgraded

"One more centimeter," said the chief technician, while operating the hydraulic jack system on 14 August. The 5-m-diameter, 5-m-long cylindrical detector gently slid into the parking position, 56 meters below the ground in ...

Upgrading ALICE: What's in store for the next two years?

With massive red doors weighing 350 tonnes each, it takes more than uttering "open sesame" to open the ALICE detector. Behind the doors lie the inner workings of a unique detector built to study the conditions of matter moments ...

Particles are back in the LHC

During the last weekend (23-25 October) particles have once again entered the LHC after the one-year break that followed the incident of September 2008.