As winter bids farewell, the recommissioning of the CERN accelerator complex is gathering pace, with diverse communities eagerly awaiting particle beams in their experiments. Following the year-end technical stop, beam entered Linac4 on 5 February, two days ahead of schedule. It was then sent to the PS Booster and reached the PS on 21 February. Following SPS beam commissioning beginning in March, the first particle beams are scheduled to enter the LHC on 11 March, initially with one to a few bunches at most.
The expectations for 2024 are high. For the LHC, the focus is on proton–proton luminosity production, aiming at an unprecedented accumulation of up to 90 fb–1. This, together with the luminosity forecast for the 2025 run, should provide a sizeable analysis dataset to keep physicists busy during Long Shutdown 3. The 2024 LHC run will conclude with lead–lead collisions, scheduled from 6 to 28 October.
The injector chain also has an ambitious year ahead, serving a busy fixed-target programme. Physics is set to start in the PS East Area on 22 March, followed by the PS n_TOF facility on 25 March. Physics in ISOLDE, downstream of the PS Booster, will start on 8 April, followed by the SPS North Area on 10 April. The antimatter factory is set to start delivering antiprotons to its experiments on 22 April, while the AWAKE facility will run for 10 weeks and the SPS HiRadMat facility for four one-week runs.
Beyond this busy physics programme, many machine development studies and tests are planned in all the machines. One of these tests will take place between mid-March and early June to configure the Linac3 source to produce magnesium ions, which will be accelerated in Linac3, injected into LEIR, and possibly even into the PS. This test will help assess the feasibility and performance of magnesium beams in the accelerator complex, for potential future applications in the LHC and the SPS North Area.
As the countdown to 11 March continues, the operations and expert teams are working diligently to prepare the machines and the beams for another successful physics run.
