LHC First Beam
LHC synchronization test successful
Particles in the LHC. The yellow spot shows a bunch of a few particles arriving at point 3 of the LHC ring.
The synchronization of the LHC's clockwise beam transfer system and the rest of CERN's accelerator chain was successfully achieved last weekend. Tests began on Friday 8 August when a single bunch of a few particles was taken down the transfer line from the SPS accelerator to the LHC.
After a period of optimization, one bunch was kicked up from the transfer line into the LHC beam pipe and steered about 3 kilometres around the LHC itself on the first attempt. On Saturday, the test was repeated several times to optimize the transfer before the operations group handed the machine back for hardware commissioning to resume on Sunday.
The anti-clockwise synchronization systems will be tested over the weekend of 22 August.