Large Hadron Collider breaks energy record, enters into the unknown

The Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said yesterday that its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has become the world's highest energy particle accelerator, having accelerated its twin beams of protons to an energy of 1.18 TeV and breaking the previous world record of 0.98 TeV held by the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory's Tevatron collider since 2001.

This month, scientist at CERN had managed to restart the LHC designed to recreate the Big Bang of the universe, after more than a year of repairs. (See: Scientists at CERN restart the Large Hadron Collider)

The LHC, which began operation in 10 September 2008, had to be shut down nine days later following a breakdown caused by a faulty electrical connection  between two of the accelerator's massive magnets.

The LHC is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, intended to collide opposing particle beams of either protons at very high energy. It is expected that it will address the most fundamental questions of physics, which seem to block further progress in understanding the deepest laws of nature.

''We are still coming to terms with just how smoothly the LHC commissioning is going,'' said CERN director general Rolf Heuer. ''It is fantastic. However, we are continuing to take it step by step, and there is still a lot to do before we start physics in 2010. I'm keeping my champagne on ice until then.''

These developments come just 11 days after the LHC restart, demonstrating the excellent performance of the machine. First beams were injected into the LHC on 20 November.