After three years: first particle collisions at unprecedented energies at LHC start 5th July 

The ATLAS detector more powerful than ever – with major contributions from Mainz University University of Mainz, press release

Tomorrow (on July 5th), protons are expected once again colliding with each other at speeds close to that of light in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, also giving physicists of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) something to celebrate. Over the last three years, they have made important contributions to the upgrade of the ATLAS detector, ensuring that it can cope with even greater volumes of data during Run 3 of the largest particle accelerator in the world. As a result the researchers hope to gain new and more extensive insights into the universe of the very smallest particles.

On 22 April, following the more than 36-month maintenance and revamping phase, protons were once more allowed to circulate in the 27-kilometer ring of the LHC – although initially at low energy. The power of the accelerator has been continuously ramped up over the past few weeks, resulting in tomorrow’s official launch of its physics program. Protons will then be collided at a total energy of 13.6 trillion electron volts (13.6 TeV) – in other words, 6.8 TeV per electron beam.
For Run 3, the LHC team has significantly improved the capability of the accelerator and taken it to the limits of its capacity. The LHC will not only be generating particle collisions at previously unseen levels of energy but there will also be unparalleled numbers of these collisions. The four detectors of the LHC also had to undergo extensive remodeling to ensure they can keep pace with this and be able to process and analyze the correspondingly massively increased flow of data. Among these is the ATLAS detector and physicists based in Mainz played a prominent part in its modification.