http://www.physorg.com/news91884764.html

Slowly does it as giant magnet goes underground at CERN

At 5:00 am GMT this morning (28th February 2007) the heaviest piece of the
Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) particle detector began a momentous journey into
its experimental cavern, 100 metres underground at CERN, Geneva.


At 5:00 am GMT this morning the heaviest piece of the Compact Muon Solenoid
(CMS) particle detector began a momentous journey into its experimental
cavern, 100 metres underground at CERN, Geneva.
Physicists are preparing the CMS detector and its sister detector, ATLAS, to
take data at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, where scientists predict that
they will make fundamental discoveries about the universe, using
very-high-energy proton collisions. Beyond revealing a new world of unknown
particles, the LHC experiments could explain why those particles exist and
behave as they do. They could discover the origins of mass, shed light on
dark matter, uncover hidden symmetries of the universe, and possibly find
extra dimensions of space.

Using a huge gantry crane, custom-built by VSL group, the pre-assembled
central piece of the detector, weighing as much as five Jumbo jets (1920
tonnes) is being gently lowered into place. "This is a challenging feat of
engineering, as there are just 20 cm of leeway between the detector and the
walls of the shaft," said Austin Ball, Technical Coordinator of CMS. "The
detector is supported by four massive cables, each with 55 strands and
attached to a step-by-step hydraulic jacking system, with sophisticated
monitoring and control to ensure the object does not sway or tilt." The
entire process is expected to take about ten hours to complete.

The first seven of 15 pieces of the CMS detector have already been lowered,
with the first piece arriving in the experimental cavern on 30 November
2006. The giant element being lowered today, which is 16 m tall, 17 m wide
and 13 m long, marks the halfway point in the lowering process with the last
piece scheduled to make its descent in summer 2007.

Professor Keith Mason, CEO of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Council
(PPARC), which pays the UK subscription to CERN, said "The lowering of the
largest piece of CMS today marks a major engineering milestone towards the
switch on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) later this year. It is somewhat
of a paradox that the largest, heaviest detectors ever built will be used to
study the smallest scientific events."

The construction of CMS is a unique experience for the high-energy physics
collaboration, as typically such experiments are built underground - without
the need for moving and lowering large pieces. CMS has broken with tradition
in order to start assembly before completion of the underground cavern,
taking advantage of a spacious surface assembly hall to pre-assemble and
pre-test the solenoid magnet and the various detectors used to measure
particles resulting from collisions.

CMS is a general purpose experiment being prepared to take data at CERN's
LHC which will be the world's largest and most complex scientific instrument
when it switches on in November 2007.

Experiments at the LHC will allow physicists to complete a journey that
started with Newton's description of gravity. Gravity acts on mass, but so
far science is unable to explain why the fundamental particles have the
masses they have. Experiments such as CMS may provide the answer. LHC
experiments will also probe the mysterious missing mass and dark energy of
the universe - visible matter seems to account for just 4% of what must
exist. They will investigate the reason for nature's preference for matter
over antimatter, and will probe matter as it existed at the very beginning
of time.

"This is a very exciting time for physics," said CMS spokesman Jim Virdee
from Imperial College London, "the LHC is poised to take us to a new level
of understanding of our Universe."

Dr Helen Heath, a CMS collaboration member from the University of Bristol
said, "This is a very exciting time as the experiment many of us have worked
on for over 10 years begins to come together."

Source: Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council

-- 

Ken

"Buddhism elucidates why we are sentient."
"Buddhism follows thought throughout the Universe."
"Karma means that you don't get away with anything."