Only a few weeks left to apply ⏱️
Join us for the CERN Accelerator School, in collaboration with Riga Technical University, for a specialised course on Medical Accelerators.
🔔 Application deadline: 13 April 2026
📆 15 - 26 June 2026, Jūrmala, Latvia
🔗 Registration: cas.web.cern.ch
Find out more: home.cern/news/news/ac...
Do you have any questions about the 2026 physics data-taking season? Leave them below 👇
With proton collisions at 13.6 TeV, this season is special not only because it begins earlier than usual, but also because it will be the last time the LHC operates in its current form. After this run, the LHC will be shut down for four years, returning in 2030 as the #HiLumiLHC.
It's time for physics! ⚛️
Stable particle beams returned to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at 15:58 CET on Saturday, 7 March, marking the start of the final run of #LHCRun3.
Are you curious about this year’s run or the future of the #LHC? Share your questions below 👇
Hear from Chiara, an Accelerator Physicist, who offers insights into this year's run, the team's preparations for a new #physics season, and what lies ahead for the #LHC.
Stay tuned for part two to discover more about the LHC's future after #LHCRun3.
Ready, Set, Collide 💥
The Large Hadron Collider (#LHC) is gearing up to resume proton collisions. In this concluding physics run of #LHCRun3, proton beams will once again be delivered to the LHC experiments.
The NA62 Collaboration has recently refined the measurement of a rare particle decay.
Studying the one-in-ten-billion kaon decay allows researchers to stress-test the #StandardModel of particle physics.
Find out more: home.cern/news/news/ph...
#HiLumiLHC : full-scale tests start 💫
Listen to Marta Bajko, Head of the High-Luminosity LHC Inner-Triplet (IT) String project, as she explains what will happen in the next weeks.
Find out more: home.cern/news/news/ac...
Find out more: home.cern/news/news/ac...
These new beam screens are designed to meet two major requirements: withstand a magnet quench – when the superconducting material becomes resistive – and transfer heat from the tungsten-based shielding to the integrated cooling tubes, maintaining the temperature within the specified range of 60–80 K
#FunFact: currently, when the beams circulate, the beam screen temperatures range from 5K (-268.15 °C) to 20K (-253.15 °C).
Here we see engineers at CERN assembling a beam screen for the #HiLumiLHC.
The beam screen is a device that surrounds the beam to protect neighbouring equipment from heat loads and potential damage caused by the circulating beams.
The immersive lecture of physicist Laurent Chevalier was accompanied by a hypnotic and poetic visual universe – Sophie Le Meillour’s creation – and by an electrifying psychedelic pop soundtrack by The Sunfast with Eric Linder and Varoujan Chetiran.
Highlights from a cosmic odyssey (une Odyssée cosmique) ✨
Last week, for its very first collaboration with CERN, the Antigel festival brought art and science together in a rare and luminous experience. Here we see the highlights of this cosmic journey.
#CERN #Antigel #science #art
The #HiLumiLHC, expected to be operational from 2030, will significantly increase the collision rate, aiming for a total data collection (integrated luminosity) ten times higher than the original LHC design.
At that time, this string of powerful superconducting magnets operated successfully at 8.36 tesla for 24 hours, and the LHC was designed to collide particles at 7 TeV. Today, we have surpassed that with collisions occurring at 13.6 TeV.
Back to the future? 🤔
Today’s #ThrowbackThursday takes us back to 1994, when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was approved for construction.
In these images, we see parts of ramp converters used for testing the superconducting #LHC magnets.
Watch this for a detailed overview: www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3gt...
It’s the final countdown 🕕
In just a few weeks, CERN will power up the #LHC for the fifth and final physics run of the #LHCRun3. But what steps must we take before activating the machine?
Swipe to discover the five-step plan for waking up a particle collider.
These upgrades include a completely new inner tracker, a high-granularity silicon timing detector, and enhancements to the trigger and data-acquisition systems.
Discover more: atlas.cern
In the meantime, ATLAS physicists have been developing upgrades for the detector, incorporating cutting-edge technologies for the #HiLumiLHC era, which will provide more data than ever before.
In just a few weeks, all experiments will be ready to receive beams as the #LHC restarts. Their detectors will once again start recording collisions.
Deep into the detector 👷
Today’s #PhotoOfTheWeek features the @atlasexperiment.bsky.social detector during the year-end technical stop (YETS) – a brief winter switch-off that allows for essential maintenance and upgrades on equipment and detectors, preparing them for the following physics run.
#ArtsAtCERN announces the artist awarded the second Resonance residency
Geneva-based French-Congolese artist Monika Emmanuelle Kazi has been selected for the second edition of the Resonance residency #AtCERN.
Find out more: home.cern/news/news/ce...
📸 by Loren Tschannen
Scientists #AtCERN have triggered the complex cooldown of a 95-m-long test stand that reproduces the underground configuration of innovative technologies for the LHC’s high-luminosity upgrade. #HiLumiLHC
Find out more: home.cern/news/news/accelerators/hilumi-lhc-full-scale-tests-start
Currently, these magnets deflect 160 MeV hydrogen ions, and were upgraded during long shutdown two to support the #LHC's transition to #HiLumiLHC.
Learn more: home.cern/science/acce...
Beams have already begun their journey through the PSB and are set to reach the Large Hadron Collider in a few weeks, marking the start of a new #physics season.
Here we see vertical septum magnets, pivotal for directing beams into the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) rings.
These magnets facilitate the vertical deflection of the beam from Linac4 into the PS Booster.
Comment below if you would like to see a new #HiLumiLHC key being handed over after Long-Shutdown 3, when most of the high-luminosity upgrades will take place, scheduled to begin in July this year.
