MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - The Large...

LHC is a particle accelerator that will smash together opposing beams of protons to explore the validity and limitations of current particle physics theory. (Image gallery)

"The collider is to be inaugurated on October 21," said Alexander Vodopyanov, of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna). "This means at least one test-run of proton beams around the accelerator ring will be conducted prior to inauguration."

The scientist said all eight sections of the collider's large ring had been cooled to temperatures approaching absolute zero. An experimental run of a proton beam through one of the sectors could be carried out as early as this week.

The $5.8 billion international project at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN, involves more than 2,000 physicists from hundreds of universities and laboratories in 34 countries.

The accelerator complex, 27 kilometers in circumference, sits in a subterranean

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