First LHC beam induced tracks reconstructed in the LHCb VELO

The Vertex Locator of the LHCb experiment has been used to fully reconstruct beam induced tracks at the LHC. A beam of protons was collided with a beam absorber during the LHC synchronisation test of the anti-clockwise beam on the weekend 22nd-24th August 2008. The resulting particles have been observed by the Vertex Locator. The LHCb Vertex Locator is a silicon micro-strip detector containing 21 planes of modules. Tracks were observed passing through up to 19 modules (38 silicon sensors). A total of over 700 tracks were reconstructed, and are being used to study the calibration and alignment of the detector.