CERN shuts down full injector complex, beginning three-year Long Shutdown 3
CERN halted its injector complex and Antimatter Factory this morning, stopping the final proton and ion beams that had continued running since the LHC itself went dark in June. This completes the transition into Long Shutdown 3, a multi-year pause across the entire accelerator chain. Engineers used the last weeks of operation to gather performance data and finish physics measurements before maintenance begins.
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LS3 is a major engineering effort to prepare CERN's accelerator network for the High-Luminosity LHC, which will collide particles at much higher rates than today. The staged restart plan, running from 2028 through mid-2030, shows how interdependent these machines are, since the LHC cannot resume until its feeder accelerators are upgraded and validated first.
- CERN's injector complex and Antimatter Factory stopped beams today, completing the shutdown of the full accelerator chain.
- The pause enables upgrades, maintenance and new experiment prep ahead of the High-Luminosity LHC era.
- Restart will happen in stages from 2028, with the upgraded LHC itself resuming last, in mid-2030.
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Published there as: “All CERN accelerators now on the road to HiLumi”
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