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26 Nov 2010
After less than three weeks of heavy-ion running, the three experiments studying lead ion collisions at the LHC have already brought new insight into matter as it would have existed in the very first instants of the Universe’s life. The ALICE experiment, which is optimised for the study of heavy ions, published two papers just a few days after the start of lead-ion running.
Snapshot of two colliding lead ions just after impact (simulation)
Now, the first direct observation of a phenomenon known as jet quenching has been made by both the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. This result is reported in a paper from the ATLAS collaboration accepted for publication yesterday in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters. A CMS paper will follow shortly, and results from all of the experiments will be presented at a seminar on Thursday 2 December at CERN. Data taking with ions continues to 6 December.
More information
* Press release: LHC experiments bring new insight into primordial universe: http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2010/PR23.10E.html
* Event displays: ALICE http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1305399, ATLAS http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1309842, CMS http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1309898
* Heavy-ion event animation: http://www.atlas.ch/multimedia/html-nc/animation-heavy-ion-event.html
Images, Text, Credit: CERN.
Cheers, Orbiter.ch
