The LHC enters a new phase

Proton running for 2010 in the LHC at CERN came to a successful conclusion. Since the end of March 2010, when the first collisions occurred at a total energy of 7 TeV, the machine and experiment teams have achieved all of their objectives for the first year of proton physics at this record energy and new ground has been explored. For the rest of the year the LHC is moving to a different phase of operation, in which lead ions will be accelerated and brought into collision in the machine for the first time. A major target for 2010 was to reach a luminosity - a measure of the collision rate - of 10³² per square centimetre per second. This was achieved on 13 October, with two weeks to spare. Before proton running came to an end, the machine had reached twice this figure, allowing experiments to double the amount of data collected in the space of only a few days. "This shows that the objective we set ourselves for this year was realistic, but tough, and it's very gratifying to see it achieved in such fine style," said Rolf Heuer, CERN's Director General.