The Big Sneeze
A week or so ago, CERN released an account of the Big Sneeze, the 19 September incident that damaged many magnets, and other equipment, in one octant of the Large Hadron Collider.
The Symmetry blog offered a brief account.
A few phrases:
"Within one second, an electrical arc developed, puncturing the helium enclosure..."
"..unable to contain the pressure rise.."
"The forces... were such that the cryostats... broke their anchors in the concrete floor of the tunnel and were moved away from their original positions, with the electric and fluid connections pulling the dipole cold masses in the subsector from the cold internal supports inside their undisplaced cryostats."
There's also a more technical "interim summary report" (PDF).
It's not clear how long this will take to fix. I wish LHC a smooth and speedy recovery from this difficult situation.
The Symmetry blog offered a brief account.
A few phrases:
"Within one second, an electrical arc developed, puncturing the helium enclosure..."
"..unable to contain the pressure rise.."
"The forces... were such that the cryostats... broke their anchors in the concrete floor of the tunnel and were moved away from their original positions, with the electric and fluid connections pulling the dipole cold masses in the subsector from the cold internal supports inside their undisplaced cryostats."
There's also a more technical "interim summary report" (PDF).
It's not clear how long this will take to fix. I wish LHC a smooth and speedy recovery from this difficult situation.