Ten years ago, researchers used the Large Hadron Collider to find the Higgs Boson particle and contribute to the understanding of our universe. In 2018, they succeeded once more, gaining fresh knowledge about protons.
European Center for Nuclear Research
They intend to restart the particle accelerator this month with a new set of questions in order to maybe gain a better understanding of cosmic unknowns like dark matter.
Professor of physics at Yale University Dr. Sarah Demers tells NPR that “this is a particle that has answered some problems for us and given many others.”
When researchers at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, spun and collided particles at close to the speed of light, they discovered the Higgs boson particle. They achieved this by utilizing the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest and most potent particle accelerator in the world.
Physicists have predicted the existence of this particle since 1964, but it took them almost 50 years to find proof.
Without the Higgs field, stars, planets, and life as we know it today would not have formed a tenth of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.
The discovery of the Higgs Boson was a significant turning point in fundamental physics, and Drs. François Englert and Peter Higgs were awarded the physics Nobel Prize. Despite the scientific success, there is still much to learn about how the cosmos works.
In 2018, the collider completed a second experimental run that revealed fresh information about the structures of protons and the decay of the Higgs boson.
And on Tuesday, the collider will launch once more after spending more than three years undergoing maintenance and modifications. This time, the data will be tripled, the intense beams will be maintained for longer, and more studies will generally be possible.
Demers, who is also at CERN working on the third run, stated that “there has to be more out there because we can’t explain so many of the things that are around us.” “There’s something incredibly enormous missing, like 96% of the size of the universe big,” the speaker said.
Demers is alluding to dark energy, which drives the universe’s fast expansion, as well as dark matter, an invisible substance thought to exist based on measurements of the cosmos. She is hoping that the future run will provide some understanding of the illusive but massive portion of our universe.
CERN stated in a press release that “unlocking the solutions to these and other fascinating questions will not only help us understand the universe at the smallest scales, but may also help us understand some of the biggest mysteries of the universe as a whole, such as how it came to be the way it is and what its ultimate fate may be.”
Scientists anticipate that the third run will last for the next four years, and they have already begun planning for the fourth cycle, which is set to commence in 2030.