A Bientot to Protons

October has bid us farewell and November is with us, and this means the LHC has reached the end of its proton physics program for the year. The Large Hadron Collider can collide more than one type of hadron, and its engineers are now working on setting the machine up for its second type, lead ions. There will be lead ion collisions for a month or so, and then the machine will shut down for its winter break.

The machines will shut down, and the people who work on them will swarm them repairing and testing and tweaking everything in sight. The physics will recommence around February of next year or so, whenever everything is ready to go once more. Of course, for the entire time, we the physics people will be pouring over our data, processing and running and debugging everything in sight.

The leaves have begun to dump their leaves in earnest in honor of the occasion, which has revealed something rather shocking to me. There are Christmas decorations sprouting around town.

. . .

It is the beginning of November.

. . .

Ah yes, they don't have Thanksgiving to distract them here.