The new year brings a new type of collision at the LHC: the accelerator will smash protons and lead nuclei together, allowing CMS and the other LHC experiments to study the cold nuclear matter we expect these collisions to produce. Although we caught a glimpse of these asymmetric lead-proton collisions during a pilot run last September, the next four weeks will bring the first sustained lead-proton run and provide valuable data. Indeed the small data sample from 2012 already revealed interesting phenomena, and raised interest in this study.
Lead-proton run: CMS prepares to receive collisions
Preparations have been progressing steadily at CMS to receive collisions between protons and lead ions