The LHC has just dumped its last proton-proton collision fill for 2024. Below is the final proton run picture where the news was announced.
The year has seen a new record in data taken in a given amount of time and has exceeded not only the set target but even the best case scenario. This accomplishment seemed obvious initially after a very smooth start into the year but there were issues during the early summer where the LHC team fell behind the planning targets. During the later summer though a furious race to catch up[ with the integrated luminosity target proceeded which was very successful mostly because of the very efficiently running machine and its superb operations. Some people joked that ‘August is the best month to catch up because all the experts are on vacation’.
ATLAS and CMS have been taking data successfully throughout and collected a lot of very interesting physics events. From our group here at MIT the PPC we are very content with the data taking, the Storage Manager went through a tumultuous straining our small operations team but never caused any loss of data. We are looking cautiously optimistic at the upcoming Heavy Ion run where our system will be definition be pushed to the brink.