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  Source: CERN

  Content: Press Release

  Date Issued: 10 September 2008

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Geneva, 10 September 2008. The first beam in the Large Hadron Collider

  at CERN was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres of the

  world’s most powerful particle accelerator at 10h28 this morning. This

  historic event marks a key moment in the transition from over two

  decades of preparation to a new era of scientific discovery.

 

  “It’s a fantastic moment,” said LHC project leader Lyn Evans, “we can

  now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and

  evolution of the universe.”

 

  Starting up a major new particle accelerator takes much more than

  flipping a switch. Thousands of individual elements have to work in

  harmony, timings have to be synchronized to under a billionth of a

  second, and beams finer than a human hair have to be brought into

  head-on collision. Today’s success puts a tick next to the first of

  those steps, and over the next few weeks, as the LHC’s operators gain

  experience and confidence with the new machine, the machine’s

  acceleration systems will be brought into play, and the beams will be

  brought into collision to allow the research programme to begin.

 

  Once colliding beams have been established, there will be a period of

  measurement and calibration for the LHC’s four major experiments, and

  new results could start to appear in around a year. Experiments at the

  LHC will allow physicists to complete a journey that started with

  Newton's description of gravity. Gravity acts on mass, but so far

  science is unable to explain the mechanism that generates mass.

  Experiments at the LHC will provide the answer. LHC experiments will

  also try to probe the mysterious dark matter of the universe – visible

  matter seems to account for just 5% of what must exist, while about a

  quarter is believed to be dark matter. They will investigate the reason

  for nature's preference for matter over antimatter, and they will probe

  matter as it existed at the very beginning of time.

 

  “The LHC is a discovery machine,” said CERN Director General Robert

  Aymar, “its research programme has the potential to change our viewof

  the Universe profoundly, continuing a tradition of human curiosity

  that’s as old as mankind itself.”

 

  Tributes have been coming in from laboratories around the world that

  have contributed to today’s success.

 

  “The completion of the LHC marks the start of a revolution in particle

  physics,” said Pier Oddone, Director of the US Fermilab. “We commend

  CERN and its member countries for creating the foundation for many

  nations to come together in this magnificent enterprise. We appreciate

  the support that DOE and NSF have provided throughout the LHC's

  construction. We in the US are proud to have contributed to the

  accelerator and detectors at the LHC, together with thousands of

  colleagues around the world with whom we share this quest.”

 

  “I congratulate you on the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider,” said

  Atsuto Suzuki, Director of Japan’s KEK laboratory, “This is a historical

  moment.”

 

  “It has been a fascinating and rewarding experience for us,” saidVinod

  C. Sahni, Director of India’s Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced

  Technology, “I extend our best wishes to CERN for a productive run with

  the LHC machine in the years to come.”

 

  “As some might say: ‘One short trip for a proton, but one giant leap for

  mankind!’ TRIUMF, and indeed all of Canada, is delighted to bear witness

  to this amazing feat,” said Nigel S. Lockyer, Director of Canada’s

  TRIUMF laboratory. “Everyone has been involved but CERN is to be

  especially congratulated for bringing the world together to embark on

  such an incredible adventure.”

 

  In a visit to CERN shortly before the LHC’s start-up United Nations

  Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon said: “I am very honored to visit CERN,

  an invaluable scientific institution and a shining example what

  international community can achieve through joint efforts and

  contribution. I convey my deepest admiration to all the scientists and

  wish them all the success for their research for peaceful developmentof

  scientific progress.”