Haldron Collider set to smash an atom

The world's biggest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, began firing beams of protons in opposite directions on Monday, with scientists describing initial progress as an "enormous success."

A view of a superconducting solenoid magnet at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva. The world's biggest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, began firing beams of protons in opposite directions on Monday, with scientists describing initial progress as an "enormous success."

The relaunch of the 3.9 billion euro ($5 billion) collider, which was out of action for 14 months, had been a success, experts at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said.

"The first three days have been in my opinion an enormous success, we've shown that the LHC machine is in superb condition from the beam quality viewpoint," said Steve Myers, CERN director of accelerators and technology.

"The breaking news is that we have two beams circulating simultaneously in the LHC, that just happened three-quarters of an hour ago," he told a press briefing.

The Large Hadron Collider, built in a 27-kilometre (16.8-mile) tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, was started with great fanfare in September 2008, but shut down nine days later when a failure in an electrical connection caused serious damage.

On Friday, scientists injected the first sub-atomic particles back into the collider and got the particle beams circulating in the accelerator again.

With two beams now circulating at the same time, the machine is poised for its first collisions.

Planned during the 10-15 year operating life of the LHC, the collisions should generate masses of data that could unlock mysteries about the creation of the universe and the fundamental nature of matter.

CERN scientists said they are aiming to get the LHC running at an energy of 1.2 teraelectronvolts or 1.2 trillion electronvolts by year end.

One teraelectronvolt is equivalent to the energy of a flying mosquito, said a CERN spokeswoman.

It is also the maximum output of what is currently the largest functioning collider in the world, at the Fermilab near Chicago in the United States.

By next year, the LHC should be ramped up to 3.5 teraelectronvolts, reaching "close to five" teraelectronvolts in the second half of next year, said Myers.

The maximum power is 7 teraelectronvolts.

"Already with 3.5 TeV, we can open new windows into physics. That can already happen next year," said CERN director-general Rolf-Dieter Heuer.

At the same time, Heuer would not predict how soon new data could be generated from the LHC, stressing that "it depends on how kind nature is to us."

The LHC at CERN took nearly 20 years to complete at a cost of six billion Swiss francs (3.9 billion euros, 4.9 billion dollars).

The massive experiment aims to resolve physics enigmas such as an explanation for "dark matter" and "dark energy" that account for 96 percent of the cosmos and whether other dimensions exist parallel to our own.

The Holy Grail will be finding a theorised component called the Higgs Boson, which would explain how particles acquire mass. The frustratingly elusive Higgs has been dubbed the "God particle".