The first collisions in the center of the ALICE, ATLAS and CMS detectors took place less than 72 hours after the LHC ended its first run of protons and switched to accelerating lead-ion beams.
The first lead-proton run at the LHC lasted for one month and data help ALICE physicists to decouple the effects of the plasma from effects that stem from cold nuclear matter effects and shed more light on the study of the Quark-Gluon plasma.