Interactions News Wire #05-08
22 January 2008 http://www.interactions.org
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Source: CERN
Content: Press Release
Date Issued: 22 January 2008
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*CMS celebrates the lowering of its final detector element*
Geneva, 22 January 2008. In the early hours of the morning the final
element of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS)[1] detector began the descent
into its underground experimental cavern in preparation for the start-up
of CERN[2]'s Large Hadron Collider[3] (LHC) this summer. This is a
pivotal moment for the CMS collaboration, as the experiment is the first
of its kind to be constructed above ground and then lowered, element by
element, 100 metres below. It marks the culmination of eight years of
work in the surface hall, and moves CMS into final commissioning before
registering proton-proton collisions at the LHC.
The journey started 14 months ago, when the first of 15 elements of the
CMS detector was carefully lowered, with just a few centimetres of
leeway, by a huge gantry crane, custom-built by the VSL group. The final
element is an asymmetrical cap that fits into the barrel element of the
experiment and weighs around 1430 tonnes. It includes fragile detectors
that will help identify and measure the energy of particles created in
LHC collisions.
"CMS is unique in the way that the detector was constructed in very
large elements in a surface assembly building and then lowered
underground", explained Austin Ball, CMS Technical Coordinator. "This is
likely to become a model for future experiments, as the technique can
now be considered proven."
There are many advantages to planning an experiment in this way, such as
the ability to save time by working simultaneously on the detector while
the experimental cavern was being excavated. There were also fewer risks
when working on the surface, and elements of detector could be tested
together before lowering them.
Experiments at the LHC will allow physicists to take a big leap on a
journey that started with Newton's description of gravity. Gravity is
ubiquitous since it acts on mass, but so far science is unable to
explain why particles have the masses they have. Experiments such as CMS
may provide the answer. LHC experiments will also probe the mysterious
missing mass and dark energy of the Universe, they will investigate the
reason for nature's preference for matter over antimatter, probe matter
as it existed close to the beginning of time and look for extra
dimensions of spacetime.
"This is a very exciting time for physics," said CMS spokesman Tejinder
Virdee, "the LHC is poised to take us to a new level of understanding of
our Universe."
[1] CMS is a worldwide collaboration comprising over 2500 scientists and
engineers from 180 institutes in 38 countries and regions. These are
Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia,
Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, New
Zealand, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Serbia, Spain,
Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of
America and Uzbekistan.
[2] CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's
leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in
Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian
Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European
Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.
[3] The LHC is a particle accelerator, which will be the world's largest
and most complex scientific instrument when it switches on in summer 2008.
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