The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) recently fired up the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a third time, a decade after it first helped in the discovery of the ‘God particle’ or Higgs Boson. In the world of physics, this has sparked fresh excitement and interest.
Understanding The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
The LHC is a colossal, intricate apparatus engineered to study the smallest known components of all matter – particles. When operational, it propels two beams of protons at nearly the speed of light in opposite directions within a circuit of superconducting electromagnets. These electromagnets create a magnetic field that confines the protons into a tight stream, guiding them as they traverse through beam tubes before finally colliding.
The powerful electromagnets in the LHC carry almost as much current as a lightning bolt, necessitating the need for cooling. To achieve this, a liquid helium distribution system is used to maintain the critical components of the LHC at an ultra-cold temperature of minus 271.3 degrees Celsius, which is chillier than interstellar space.
The Latest Upgrade
During its third run, the LHC will operate continuously for the next four years at unprecedented energy levels of 13 tera electron volts. Scientists aim to accomplish 1.6 billion proton-proton collisions per second for the ATLAS and CMS experiments. ATLAS, the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the LHC, works hand in hand with CMS, one of history’s most substantial international scientific collaborations that employ a different magnet-system design. Physicists hope these collisions will reveal more about the universe at subatomic levels and unravel elusive mysteries like the nature of dark matter.
Previous Performance of LHC
During the first run, the LHC helped CERN announce the discovery of the Higgs boson or ‘God Particle’. This led to Peter Higgs and his collaborator François Englert receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013. The subsequent run, which started in 2015 and ended in 2018, produced five times more data than the first.
The ‘God Particle’
The discovery of the Higgs boson enabled the validation of the Standard Model of physics. Peter Higgs, who first suggested the particle’s existence in the 1960s, proposed the Higgs field as a universal presence giving mass to all elementary particles. The Higgs boson is a wave in that field, proving the existence of the Higgs field.
Fallout of the Discovery
This breakthrough has significant implications for understanding the universe. The Standard Model of particle physics describes three of the four known fundamental forces – electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions – and classifies all known elementary particles. It explains how quarks (constituting protons and neutrons) and leptons (including electrons) make up all known matter. It also elaborates on how force-carrying particles influence the quarks and leptons. The Higgs boson belongs to the category of bosons – particles believed to be responsible for all physical forces.
India and CERN
India became an associate member of CERN in 2016, building on a decades-long association. This membership has allowed Indian companies to bid for engineering contracts and Indian nationals to apply for staff positions at CERN. Despite the lack of voting rights, this associate membership, costing approximately Rs. 78 crore annually, has been seen as a significant step forward for India’s scientific community. Indian scientists have been integral to key experiments at CERN, including the Large Ion Collider Experiment and the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment that led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
