The LHC's 2011 Lead-Ion Run Gets Under Way, Seeking The Core Of Matter

After several months of proton collisions, the LHC is embarking on a period of lead ion running, which will last until 7 December. This should provide large quantities of data, as the LHC's performance has been dramatically improved since the first lead-ion run in 2010.

A lead-ion collision recorded by the ALICE experiment during the 2011 run

Credit: CERN

Lead ion collisions will be studied in detail by the ALICE experiment, which is optimised for lead ions, as well as by the ATLAS and CMS experiments. By studying these collisions, physicists probe matter as it would have been in the first instants of the Universe's existence. One of their main objectives is to make tiny quantities of such matter, known as Quark Gluon Plasma, and to study how it evolved into the matter that makes up the Universe today.

ALICE is the acronym for A Large Ion Collider Experiment, one of the largest experiments in the world devoted to research in the physics of matter at an infinitely small scale. Hosted at CERN, the European Laboratory for Nuclear Research, this project involves an international collaboration of more than 1000 physicists, engineers and technicians, including around 200 graduate students, from 105 physics institutes in 30 countries across the world. The ALICE Experiment is going in search of answers to fundamental questions, using the extraordinary tools provided by the LHC:

• What happens to matter when it is heated to 100,000 times the temperature at the centre of the Sun ?
• Why do protons and neutrons weigh 100 times more than the quarks they are made of ?
• Can the quarks inside the protons and neutrons be freed ?

This website aims both at introducing non-initiates to the field ofphysics covered by ALICE and at providing regular information on the evolution of the experiment, with detailed reports of its results and analysis. It also offers an insight into the scientific community gathered around this project and highlights its contributions to the advancement of our understanding of the universe. So, no matter what your involvement with physics, you are invited to tumble down the rabbit hole into the wonderland of ALICE.

Contacts and sources:
CERN

CERN Bulletin: Leading lead through the LHC
ALICE public website: http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/public