As has been communicated quite well by many of my colleagues here on Quantum Diaries we are officially in a VERY exciting time in particle physics. The Large Hadron Collider has had its first collisions marking a very significant milestone in what has been a long and hard journey of a new accelerator and the many experiments that will be receiving data for many years to come.
While I am not currently at CERN and I continue to spend most of my days slugging it out with the data here at Fermilab, I can’t help but be caught up in the amazing images of the first collisions and while I am sure many people have already seen these I wanted to make sure I had them up on my blog as well.
Display of first collisons at CMS
These images and data that are first coming off of the CMS detector are really captivating and profound. They are but a snapshot of the work of thousands tirelessly giving to the cause of building what is sure to become a triumph of modern science and engineering. All with the hopes that these experiments will allow us to unlock the deep mysteries of the universe.
However, it is with some ironic nostalgia that I received the news of the first collisions at the LHC and saw pictures of the scientists toasting in the control room and producing these high quality images of the first events. I say ironic nostalgia because I was given cause to pause and ponder…”what was the first collisions like at the Tevatron and CDF?” So after some chatting with the people here at Fermilab and my adviser I unearthed some old images of what it was like here.
CDF Logbook (that is right they used to acutally write in a book) the night of first collisions...how large do you suppose CMS's book would be?
Please remember that 24 years, 1 month, and 10 days ago when CDF saw their first collisions I was 4.5 years old. I barely knew the difference between a dog and a cat…little alone a proton and a anti-proton. But when I was looking through these images what I found was many of the same people that I’ve gotten to know and love here at Fermilab and in the particle physics community at large were not only here for the first collisions, but are also involved at CERN as well. So in the span of my lifetime while I’ve been figuring out what animal goes “woof” and what animal goes “meow” These people have seen two energy frontiers and have been at the forefront of both! I am humbled and excited to see what will happen during the next 24 years and where I’ll show up in the old photo logs! Many of these images can be found here and you can keep up with the latest and greatest stuff from CMS and the LHC here
Steve and Dee Hahn at CDF first collisions...and still here keeping the ship afloat
First Collision at CDF...not quite as beautiful graphics rendering as they have nowadays
