ATLAS Run 3 Beam Splash Events — Event Display (Image: CERN)

Readying for a new era of exploration

On 5 July 2022, after over 3 years of shutdown, the LHC returned with a new energy world record of 13.6 trillion electron volts (13.6 TeV) in its first stable-beam collisions. These collisions mark the start of data-taking for the new physics season, called Run 3.

Find below new articles, images and videos related to the restart of the LHC, Long Shutdown 2 and the ATLAS experiment.

Restart LHC 2022

The LHC began ramping up in Spring 2022 and, in April and May, ATLAS recorded the first beam splashes and test collisions of Run 3. These were an important step in the data workflow, preparing ATLAS to record first physics collisions at the record energy of 13.6 TeV. On 5 July 2022, just one day after celebrating the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson, the ATLAS experiment and the LHC began operation for physics research.

Event Displays,Physics,ATLAS,LHC Run 3 — Event display of a collision event recorded in ATLAS on 5 July 2022, when stable beams of protons at the energy of 6.8 TeV per beam were delivered to ATLAS for the first time by the LHC. (Image: CERN)

Proton Collisions,Event Displays,Physics,ATLAS — Event display of a collision event (Run 423110, Event 183777) recorded in ATLAS on 28 May 2022, when stable beams of protons at the injection energy of 450 GeV per beam were delivered to ATLAS by the LHC. (Image: CERN)

Commissioning,Proton Collisions,Event Displays,Physics,ATLAS — Event display of a splash event recorded by ATLAS during the LHC "beam splash" tests on Saturday 07 May 2022 as the LHC restarts in preparation for Run 3 data taking. (Image: CERN)

New Expectations

By the end of Run 3, we anticipate tripling the dataset available for analysis. In addition, the higher collision energy will further the reach of the physics programme (for example, the production rate of Higgs boson pairs will increase by 11% relative to Run 2). The upgraded ATLAS detector, trigger, software/computer systems and analysis algorithms will provide opportunities to search for new phenomena, such as feebly interacting or long-lived particles, and to test the Standard Model with ever greater precision. ATLAS will also be able to expand the reach into rare processes like Higgs boson decays into muon pairs, the production of Higgs boson pairs, triple gauge bosons and quadruple top quarks.

Articles

ATLAS: ATLAS Experiment records “first physics” at new high-energy frontier, 5 July 2022
CERN: LHC Run 3: physics at record energy starts tomorrow, 4 July 2022
CERN: Large Hadron Collider restarts, 22 April 2022
ATLAS: Countdown to physics: Beams splash in the ATLAS experiment, 28 April 2022

Videos

News Release: LHC restarts
Run 3 Live Teaser
LHC sets new World-Record Energy
Interview with ATLAS Spokesperson Andreas Hoecker on LHC Run 3 and the 10th anniversary of the Higgs boson discovery

Photos & Event Displays

Live Events

3 July: Public Event: Particle Fever at the Globe
4 July: Higgs10 Symposium: Celebrating 10 years of Discovery
5 July: CERN Live broadcast: LHC Restart

Long Shutdown 2

What happened during Long Shutdown 2?

After several years of intense operation, the ATLAS Experiment entered its second maintenance period in December 2018 (called "Long Shutdown 2" or LS2). Over the course of 3.5 years, members of the Collaboration installed critical upgrades to the experiment and carried out maintenance work on its systems. This incredibly productive period ran alongside continued analysis of LHC Run 2 data. Highlights include major new additions to the ATLAS experiment, such as the New Small Wheel Detectors, and significant upgrades to its event selection system (the "trigger").

General Information

ATLAS is a general-purpose particle physics experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It is designed to exploit the full discovery potential of the LHC, pushing the frontiers of scientific knowledge. ATLAS' exploration uses precision measurement to push the frontiers of knowledge by seeking answers to fundamental questions such as: What are the basic building blocks of matter? What are the fundamental forces of nature? What is dark matter made of?

ATLAS is a collaboration of physicists, engineers, technicians, students and support staff from around the world. It is one of the largest collaborative efforts ever attempted in science, with over 5500 members and almost 3000 scientific authors. The success of ATLAS relies on the close collaboration of research teams located at CERN, and at member universities and laboratories worldwide.