The summer is often a very productive period for physics in CERN’s accelerator complex, that is, when the weather remains reasonable…

CERN’s accelerators show very good availability rates: beams are in place

Restarting the entire accelerator complex after a technical stop is rarely seamless and often comes with unexpected technical challenges

Dismantling a beam dump is a real conundrum – that’s what the 2020 “autopsy” concluded. To solve it, the new spare LHC beam dumps have been made easier to “cut”

We are optimistic that we will have a successful luminosity production period this summer

The LHC injector chain has been switched to a new beam production scheme to explore its potential to produce more collisions in the LHC and to compare its performance to that of the standard LHC beam

The new HL-LHC cold powering system, which includes the high-temperature superconducting link colloquially known as “the python”, has successfully passed its first cold powering tests

The LHC is performing well and the injector complex is treating its experimental users to a high level of beam availability

In the last two weeks, the LHC teams have encountered two main challenges that have led to some changes to the filling scheme

Almost the whole accelerator complex is now in “physics mode”, routinely delivering the various types of beam to the different physics facilities and experiments. Notably, the intensity ramp-up in the LHC is progressing remarkably well