What is the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism?

The Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism (BEH mechanism) describes how fundamental particles get mass. In this theory, developed independently by Robert Brout and François Englert in Belgium and Peter Higgs in the United Kingdom in 1964, fundamental particles acquire mass by interacting with a “field” that permeates the entire Universe. The more strongly the particles interact with the field, the more massive they are.

On the other hand, particles that do not interact with this field do not have mass - for example, the photon. This mechanism is a corner stone of the Standard Model, the theory that describes the elementary particles and forces. Later in 1964, the Americans Gerald Guralnik and Carl Hagen with their British colleague Tom Kibble further contributed to the development of this new idea.

What is the Higgs boson?

The Higgs boson is the quantum particle associated with the Higgs field. Since the field cannot be observed directly, experiments have searched for the particle.

whose discovery would prove the existence of the field and confirm the theory. On 4 July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations announced the observation of a particle consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson. The analyses performed since then by the two collaborations have confirmed that the particle discovered has the characteristics of the boson described by the theory.

Why is this so important?

At the beginning of the 1970s, physicists realized that there are very close ties between two of the four fundamental forces – the weak force and the electromagnetic force. These two forces can be described within the same unified theory, which forms the basis of the Standard Model. The basic equations of the unified theory correctly describe the two forces in terms of a single electroweak force and its associated force-carrying particles, namely the photon, and the W and Z bosons - except that all of the particles emerge without a mass. While this is true for the photon, we know that the W and Z have large masses, nearly 100 times that of a proton. The Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism solves this problem by giving a mass to the W and Z bosons. At the same time, within the Standard Model, it also gives masses to other fundamental particles, such as the electron and the quarks.

Is the Higgs mechanism responsible for the mass that is familiar to us?

The Higgs field gives mass only to elementary particles such as electrons and quarks. Quarks form the protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei. Most of the mass of the matter that surrounds - and includes - us comes from these composite protons and neutrons. The quarks inside them account for only a tiny part of their mass, which mainly comes from the strong nuclear force that binds the quarks together. However, without the Higgs field, the Universe would not be the one we know. The elementary particles, such as electrons, would travel at the speed of light, as photons do. They could not be organized into more complex structure like atoms and molecules - and we would not exist.

How long has CERN been looking for the Higgs boson?

The search for the Higgs boson at CERN began in earnest in the late 1980s, with the Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider, which occupied the tunnel that now houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The experiments at the Tevatron collider at Fermilab in the US also began searching for the Higgs boson in the 1990s. The big difficulty initially was that theory did not predict the mass of the particle and it was possible that it could be found anywhere in a wide range of mass. LEP was shut down in 2000 to make way for the LHC and the LHC experiments took up the search again in 2010.

Is this the end of the quest?

Finding the Higgs boson is not the end of the story; the physicists have to study this particle in detail to measure its properties. Furthermore, many questions remain unanswered. For instance, what is the nature of dark matter, which makes up a large part of the Universe? Why is there far more matter than antimatter in the Universe, when both have been created in equal quantities at the beginning of the Universe? And many other questions...

Were any previous Nobel prizes awarded for work performed at CERN?

Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer won the Nobel prize in physics in 1984 “for their decisive contributions to the large project, which led to the discovery of the field particles W and Z, communicators of weak interaction.”

Georges Charpak won the Nobel prize in physics in 1992 “for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multiwire proportional chamber”. The particle detectors developed by Charpak revolutionized experimental particle physics by increasing considerably the volume of data that can be recorded by detectors.

The LHC will not generate black holes in the cosmological sense. However, some theories suggest that the formation of tiny 'quantum' black holes may be possible. The observation of such an event would be thrilling in terms of our understanding of the Universe; and would be perfectly safe. More information is available here.

What civil engineering work is required for the High-Luminosity LHC?

The new equipment for the High-Luminosity LHC requires civil engineering work to be undertaken on the sites of the ATLAS experiment in Meyrin, Switzerland (LHC Point 1) and the CMS experiment in Cessy, France (LHC Point 5).

On each site, the underground constructions will consist of:

- A shaft around 80 metres deep

- An underground service hall that will notably house cryogenics equipment

- A 300-metre-long tunnel for electrical equipment (power converters)

- Four tunnels measuring around 50 metres in length, connecting the new structures to the accelerator tunnel. These will house specific hardware, such as radiofrequency equipment.

On each site, the surface work consists of constructing five new buildings, representing a total surface area of 2800 m². These will house the cooling and ventilation equipment, as well as electrical equipment. These buildings will be constructed outside the current site perimeters at Cessy and on a site made available by the Swiss Confederation at Meyrin.

Who is carrying out the work?

Two consortia won the call for tenders for the civil engineering work. Each will employ up to 70 people on each site during peak periods.

What is the work schedule?

Work began in April 2018 and should last four years. The underground work (excavation of shafts, caverns and tunnels) will be carried out first and should be completed in 2021. The surface buildings will be constructed between 2020 and 2022. The surface work will be carried out only on working days.

What will happen to the excavated earth?

Around 100 000 m³ of earth will be excavated to create the underground structures. The excavated material will be analysed on the surface to check its quality. On the Meyrin site, much of the excavated material will be reused to create a platform on which to erect the buildings. The rest will be taken to a treatment centre. At Cessy, almost all of the excavated material will be taken to inert waste storage facilities located less than 20 km from the worksite, to limit the transport distance. On both sites, the topsoil will be reused for landscaping.
 

How will the work affect traffic?

• Road traffic

During the excavation period, lorries will transport the spoil to treatment or storage centres. A maximum of 10 lorries will come and go on the Meyrin site each day, and 10 to 15 on the Cessy site. Spoil will be transported only during working days (Monday to Friday) and, in Meyrin, during off-peak hours (9.30 a.m. to 12.00 p.m. and 1.00 p.m. to 4.30. p.m.).

• Footpaths and cycle paths

In Meyrin, the footpath linking the Maisonnex sports complex to the Chemin de la Berne (north-north-easterly direction) will be closed while the work is taking place; access to the complex will be possible via the Route de Meyrin and the path along the border.

In Cessy, the pedestrian and cycle path around the site (Chemin du Milieu and Chemin de Mouillets) will stay open and will be sheltered from the worksite.
 

How will the work affect the environment?

The contracts concluded with the two civil engineering consortia impose environmental restrictions and, notably, the hiring of experts to do environmental monitoring on the worksite.

• Noise

The noise generated by the work will be limited in order to respect French and Swiss regulations. An acoustic system will monitor noise levels at various times. Measures will be taken to limit noise, such as the construction of a temporary building with noise barriers above each shaft to minimise noise pollution from the excavation, or the installation of mufflers on the ventilation systems for the underground work. Surface work will take place only on working days, during the day.

• Air

Host State regulations govern the release of dust into the air while the work is taking place. Measures will be implemented, such as a wheel-washing system for lorries leaving the sites, vehicle speed restrictions and a sprinkler system in dry weather.

• Water

A worksite water management plan has been established to prevent pollution. As far as possible, the excavation areas must be protected from rainwater. A water treatment plant will be installed on each site to treat all water coming from the worksite before it is discharged. The water quality will be monitored.

Will there be any long-term environmental impact?

• Traffic

Road traffic will not be affected. When the work is complete, the footpath in Meyrin linking the Maisonnex sports complex to the Chemin de la Berne will be reopened, with the route modified to pass around the new buildings. The footpath in Cessy will remain unchanged.

• Landscaping

Both sites will be landscaped and planted with around twenty local tree species.

• Noise

An acoustic survey of the future facilities has been performed and forms part of the planning permission requirements. Noise emissions will remain below the legal limits. All of the new equipment for the HL-LHC will be installed either in surface buildings with soundproofing or underground.

• Water

In Meyrin, a new water retention tank will be installed to regulate the flow of rainwater into the Nant d’Avril stream. A new monitoring station will be set up (CERN has 27 water monitoring stations on its sites and the surrounding areas). A similar tank is already in operation in Cessy, regulating the water released into the Oudar. In Cessy, two water tables are located beneath the experiment site. The work will penetrate only the surface water table: a watertight, circular wall will first be installed to a depth of 15 metres to isolate the water table and make it possible to excavate inside it. The work will not penetrate the deeper water table.

No. Although powerful for an accelerator, the energy reached in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is modest by nature’s standards.  Cosmic rays – particles produced by events in outer space – collide with particles in the Earth’s atmosphere at much greater energies than those of the LHC. These cosmic rays have been bombarding the Earth’s atmosphere as well as other astronomical bodies since these bodies were formed, with no harmful consequences. These planets and stars have stayed intact despite these higher energy collisions over billions of years.

Read more about the safety of the LHC here

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built. The accelerator sits in a tunnel 100 metres underground at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.

What is the LHC?

The LHC is a particle accelerator that pushes protons or ions to near the speed of light. It consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures that boost the energy of the particles along the way.

Why is it called the “Large Hadron Collider”?

• "Large" refers to its size, approximately 27km in circumference
• "Hadron" because it accelerates protons or ions, which belong to the group of particles called hadrons
• "Collider" because the particles form two beams travelling in opposite directions, which are made to collide at four points around the machine

How does the LHC work?

• The CERN accelerator complex is a succession of machines with increasingly higher energies. Each machine accelerates a beam of particles to a given energy before injecting the beam into the next machine in the chain. This next machine brings the beam to an even higher energy and so on. The LHC is the last element of this chain, in which the beams reach their highest energies.

• Inside the LHC, two particle beams travel at close to the speed of light before they are made to collide. The beams travel in opposite directions in separate beam pipes – two tubes kept at ultrahigh vacuum. They are guided around the accelerator ring by a strong magnetic field maintained by superconducting electromagnets. Below a certain characteristic temperature, some materials enter a superconducting state and offer no resistance to the passage of electrical current. The electromagnets in the LHC are therefore chilled to ‑271.3°C (1.9K) – a temperature colder than outer space – to take advantage of this effect. The accelerator is connected to a vast distribution system of liquid helium, which cools the magnets, as well as to other supply services.

What are the main goals of the LHC?

The Standard Model of particle physics – a theory developed in the early 1970s that describes the fundamental particles and their interactions – has precisely predicted a wide variety of phenomena and so far successfully explained almost all experimental results in particle physics.. But the Standard Model is incomplete. It leaves many questions open, which the LHC will help to answer.
 

• What is the origin of mass? The Standard Model does not explain the origins of mass, nor why some particles are very heavy while others have no mass at all. However, theorists Robert Brout, François Englert and Peter Higgs made a proposal that was to solve this problem. The Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism gives a mass to particles when they interact with an invisible field, now called the “Higgs field”, which pervades the universe. Particles that interact intensely with the Higgs field are heavy, while those that have feeble interactions are light. In the late 1980s, physicists started the search for the Higgs boson, the particle associated with the Higgs field. In July 2012, CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson, which confirmed the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism. However, finding it is not the end of the story, and researchers have to study the Higgs boson in detail to measure its properties and pin down its rarer decays.
   
• Will we discover evidence for supersymmetry? The Standard Model does not offer a unified description of all the fundamental forces, as it remains difficult to construct a theory of gravity similar to those for the other forces. Supersymmetry – a theory that hypothesises the existence of more massive partners of the standard particles we know – could facilitate the unification of fundamental forces.
   
• What are dark matter and dark energy? The matter we know and that makes up all stars and galaxies only accounts for 4% of the content of the universe. The search is then still open for particles or phenomena responsible for dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%).
   
• Why is there far more matter than antimatter in the universe? Matter and antimatter must have been produced in the same amounts at the time of the Big Bang, but from what we have observed so far, our Universe is made only of matter.
   
• How does the quark-gluon plasma give rise to the particles that constitute the matter of our Universe? For part of each year, the LHC provides collisions between lead ions, recreating conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang. When heavy ions collide at high energies they form for an instant the quark-gluon plasma, a “fireball” of hot and dense matter that can be studied by the experiments.

How was the LHC designed?

Scientists started thinking about the LHC in the early 1980s, when the previous accelerator, the LEP, was not yet running. In December 1994, CERN Council voted to approve the construction of the LHC and in October 1995, the LHC technical design report was published.

Contributions from Japan, the USA, India and other non-Member States accelerated the process and between 1996 and 1998, four experiments (ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb) received official approval and construction work started on the four sites.

Important figures: the energy of the LHC for Run 2

What are the detectors at the LHC?

There are seven experiments installed at the LHC: ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, LHCf, TOTEM and MoEDAL. They use detectors to analyse the myriad of particles produced by collisions in the accelerator. These experiments are run by collaborations of scientists from institutes all over the world. Each experiment is distinct, and characterized by its detectors.

What is the data flow from the LHC experiments?

The CERN Data Centre stores more than 30 petabytes of data per year from the LHC experiments, enough to fill about 1.2 million Blu-ray discs, i.e. 250 years of HD video. Over 100 petabytes of data are permanently archived, on tape.

How much does the LHC cost?

• Construction costs (MCHF)

*This includes: Machine R&D and injectors, tests and pre-operation.
** Contains infrastructure costs (such as caverns and facilities). The total cost of all LHC detectors is about 1500 MCHF

The experimental collaborations are individual entities, funded independently from CERN. CERN is a member of each experiment, and contributes to the maintenance and operation budget of the LHC experiments.

• Costs for Run 1
  Exploitation costs of the LHC when running (direct and indirect costs) represent about 80% of the CERN annual budget for operation, maintenance, technical stops, repairs and consolidation work in personnel and materials (for machine, injectors, computing, experiments).
  The directly allocated resources for the years 2009-2012 were about 1.1 billion CHF.
   
• Costs for LS1
  The cost of the Long Shutdown 1 (22 months) is estimated at 150 Million CHF. The maintenance and upgrade works represent about 100 MCHF for the LHC and 50 MCHF for the accelerator complex without the LHC.

What is the LHC power consumption?

The total power consumption of the LHC (and experiments) is equivalent to 600 GWh per year, with a maximum of 650 GWh in 2012 when the LHC was running at 4 TeV. For Run 2, the estimated power consumption is 750 GWh per year.
The total CERN energy consumption is 1.3 TWh per year while the total electrical energy production in the world is around 20000 TWh, in the European Union 3400 TWh, in France around 500 TWh, and in Geneva canton 3 TWh.

What are the main achievements of the LHC so far?

• 10 September 2008: LHC first beam (see press release)
   
• 23 November 2009: LHC first collisions (see press release)
   
• 30 November 2009: world record with beam energy of 1.18 TeV (see press release)
   
• 16 December 2009: world record with collisions at 2.36 TeV and significant quantities of data recorded (see press release)
   
• March 2010: first beams at 3.5 TeV (19 March) and first high energy collisions at 7 TeV (30 March) (see press release)
   
• 8 November 2010: LHC first lead-ion beams (see press release)
   
• 22 April 2011: LHC sets new world record beam intensity (see press release)
   
• 5 April 2012: First collisions at 8 TeV (see press release)
   
• 4 July 2012: Announcement of the discovery of a Higgs-like particle at CERN (see press release)

  For more information about the Higgs boson:
  The Higgs boson
  CERN and the Higgs boson
  The Basics of the Higgs boson
  How standard is the Higgs boson discovered in 2012?
  Higgs update 4 July
   

• 28 September 2012:  Tweet from CERN: "The LHC has reached its target for 2012 by delivering 15 fb-1 (around a million billion collisions) to ATLAS and CMS "
   
• 14 February 2013:  At 7.24 a.m, the last beams for physics were absorbed into the LHC, marking the end of Run 1 and the beginning of the Long Shutdown 1 (see press release)
   
• 8 October 2013: Physics Nobel prize to François Englert and Peter Higgs “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider” (see press release)

See LHC Milestones.

What are the main goals for the second run of the LHC?

The discovery of the Higgs boson was only the first chapter of the LHC story. Indeed, the restart of the machine this year marks the beginning of a new adventure, as it will operate at almost double the energy of its first run. Thanks to the work that has been done during the Long Shutdown 1, the LHC will now be able to produce 13 TeV collisions (6.5 TeV per beam), which will allow physicists to further explore the nature of our Universe.

How long will the LHC run?

The LHC is planned to run over the next 20 years, with several stops scheduled for upgrades and maintenance work.

The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is a major upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC collides tiny particles of matter (protons) at an energy of 13 TeV in order to study the fundamental components of matter and the forces that bind them together. The High-Luminosity LHC will make it possible to study these in more detail by increasing the number of collisions by a factor of between five and seven.
 

Prototype of a quadrupole magnet for the High-Luminosity LHC. (Image: Robert Hradil, Monika Majer/ProStudio22.ch)

What is luminosity?

Luminosity, which is the measure of the number of potential collisions per surface unit over a given period of time, is an essential indicator of an accelerator’s performance. Integrated luminosity is measured in inverse femtobarns (fb⁻¹); one inverse femtobarn equates to 100 million million collisions.
By the end of its first few years of operation at 13 TeV (at the end of 2018), the LHC should have produced 150 inverse femtobarns of data. The HL-LHC will produce more than 250 inverse femtobarns of data per year and will be capable of collecting up to 4000 inverse femtobarns.

Why High-Luminosity?

The phenomena that physicists are looking for have a very low probability of occurring and this is why a very large amount of data is needed to detect them. Increasing luminosity produces more data, allowing physicists to study known mechanisms in greater detail and observe rare new phenomena that might reveal themselves. For example, the High-Luminosity LHC will produce at least 15 million Higgs bosons per year, compared to around three million from the LHC in 2017.

How will the High-Luminosity LHC work?

Increasing the luminosity means increasing the number of collisions: at least 140 collisions will be produced each time the particle bunches meet at the heart of the ATLAS and CMS detectors, compared to around 40 at present. To achieve this, the beam will need to be more intense and more focused than at present in the LHC. New equipment will need to be installed over about 1.2 of the LHC’s 27 kilometres.

• More powerful focusing magnets and new optics

New, more powerful superconducting quadrupole magnets will be installed on either side of the ATLAS and CMS experiments to focus the particle bunches before they meet. These magnets will be made of a superconducting compound, niobium-tin, used for the first time in an accelerator, which will make it possible to achieve higher magnetic fields than the niobium-titanium alloy used for the current LHC magnets (12 teslas as opposed to 8). Twenty-four new quadrupole magnets are currently in production. The use of niobium-tin magnets is an opportunity to test this technology for future accelerators. New beam optics (the way the beams are tilted and focused) will notably make it possible to maintain a constant collision rate throughout the lifespan of the beam.

• “Crab cavities” for tilting the beams

This innovative superconducting equipment will give the particle bunches a transverse momentum before they meet, enlarging the overlap area of the two bunches and thus increasing the probability of collisions. A total of sixteen crab cavities will be installed on either side of each of the ATLAS and CMS experiments.

• Reinforced machine protection

As the beams will contain more particles, machine protection will need to be reinforced. Around one hundred new, more effective collimators will be installed, replacing or supplementing the existing ones. These devices absorb particles that stray from the beam trajectory and might otherwise damage the machine.

• More compact and powerful bending magnets

Two of the current bending magnets will be replaced with two pairs of shorter bending magnets and two collimators. Made of the superconducting niobium-tin compound, these new dipole magnets will generate a magnetic field of 11 teslas, compared with the 8.3 teslas of today’s dipole magnets, and will thus bend the trajectory of the protons over a shorter distance.

• Innovative superconducting links

Innovative superconducting power lines will connect the power converters to the accelerator. These cables, which are around one hundred metres long, are made of a superconducting material, magnesium diboride, that works at a higher temperature than that of the magnets. They will be able to carry currents of record intensities, up to 100 000 amps!

• An upgraded accelerator chain

The HL-LHC’s performance will also rely upon the injector chain, i.e. the four machines that pre-accelerate the beams before sending them into the 27-kilometre ring. This accelerator chain is being upgraded. A new linear accelerator, Linac4, the first link in the chain, is in the testing phase before replacing today’s Linac2. Upgrades are also planned for the three other links in the accelerator chain: the PS Booster, the PS and the SPS.

What is the work schedule?

In order to install the new equipment and move certain components around, new underground structures and surface buildings are required.
The civil engineering work began in April 2018 at LHC Point 1 (in Meyrin, Switzerland), where the ATLAS experiment is located, and at LHC Point 5 (in Cessy, France), the site of the CMS experiment. A shaft of around 80 metres will be dug on each site, as well as an underground cavern and a 300-metre-long service tunnel. This service tunnel will be linked to the LHC tunnel by four connecting tunnels. Five surface buildings will be built on each site.
In the meantime, the new equipment is being manufactured in Europe, Japan and the United States. Canada and China have also expressed an interest in supporting the project and contributing to the production of the state- of-the-art equipment. The experiments are also preparing for major upgrades of their detectors to deal with the deluge of data promised by the HL-LHC.
Installation of the first components will begin during the second long shutdown of the LHC, between 2019 and 2021. But most of the equipment and the major experiment upgrades will be installed during Long Shutdown 3, between 2025 and 2027.

How much will the High-Luminosity LHC cost?

The materials budget for the accelerator is set at 950 million Swiss francs between 2015 and 2026, assuming a constant CERN budget.

Who is involved in the project?

CERN and its Member and Associate Member States are supported by an international collaboration of 29 institutions in 13 countries, including the United States and Japan.

How will society benefit from the HL-LHC?

The HL-LHC will further our fundamental knowledge, which is CERN’s primary mission. To develop the new machine, CERN is pushing several technologies to their limits, such as electrical engineering, notably in terms of superconductors, vacuum technologies, computing, electronics and even industrial processes. In the long term,these innovations will benefit our daily lives.
For example, superconducting magnets find applications in the fields of medical imaging and cancer treatment with particle beams (hadron therapy). There are also many prospects in the field of electrical engineering: European industry is studying the possibility of using magnesium diboride cables to transport high electrical power over great distances in a way that is sustainable for the environment.
The HL-LHC project is also contributing to the training of new scientists – physicists, engineers and technicians. Currently, around 200 students, doctoral students, post- doctoral researchers and fellows of 23 different nationalities are participating in the project.

Press photo selection about High-Lumi LHC

Press clip for High-Lumi LHC with music and without music

Press video selection about High-Lumi LHC

Is the Large Hadron Collider dangerous?

No. Although powerful for an accelerator, the energy reached in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is modest by nature’s standards.  Cosmic rays – particles produced by events in outer space – collide with particles in the Earth’s atmosphere at much greater energies than those of the LHC. These cosmic rays have been bombarding the Earth’s atmosphere as well as other astronomical bodies since these bodies were formed, with no harmful consequences. These planets and stars have stayed intact despite these higher energy collisions over billions of years.

Read more about the safety of the LHC here

What happened with the LHC in 2015 and what does CERN plan to do in the future?

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) restarted at a collision energy of 13 teraelectronvolts (TeV) in June 2015. Throughout September and October 2015, CERN gradually increased the number of collisions, while remaining at the same energy. In November, as with previous LHC runs, the machine run with lead ions instead of protons until mid-December when it had its winter technical stop.

After a successful run in 2016, the most powerful collider in the world was switched back on in spring 2017, followed by a period of tests. After a period of commissioning, the LHC experiments began taking physics data for 2017. Over the coming years, the LHC operators plan to increase the intensity of the beams so that the machine produces a larger number of collisions. This will enable physicists to have a better understanding of fundamental physics.

Why is the Higgs boson referred to as the God particle?

The Higgs boson is the linchpin of the Standard Model of particle physics but experimental physicists weren’t able to observe it until the arrival of the LHC, nearly 50 years after the particle was first postulated. Leon Lederman coined the term ‘the God particle’ in his popular 1993 book ‘The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question?’ written with Dick Teresi. In their book, Lederman and Teresi claim the nickname originated because the publisher wouldn’t allow them to call it ‘the Goddamn Particle’ – a name that reflected the difficulty in observing the elusive boson. The name caught on through the media attention it attracted but is disliked by both clerics and scientists.

Is CERN's aim to prove that God does not exist?

No. People from all over the world work together harmoniously at CERN, representing all regions, religions and cultures. CERN exists to understand the mystery of nature for the benefit of humankind. Scientists at CERN use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles. Particles are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. This process gives the physicists clues about how the particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature.

Why does CERN have a statue of Shiva?

The Shiva statue was a gift from India to celebrate its association with CERN, which started in the 1960’s and remains strong today. In the Hindu religion, Lord Shiva practiced Nataraj dance which symbolises Shakti, or life force. This deity was chosen by the Indian government because of a metaphor that was drawn between the cosmic dance of the Nataraj and the modern study of the ‘cosmic dance’ of subatomic particles. India is one of CERN’s associate member states. CERN is a multicultural organisation that welcomes scientists from more than 100 countries and 680 institutions. The Shiva statue is only one of the many statues and art pieces at CERN.

What are the shapes in the CERN logo?

The shapes in CERN’s current logo represent particle accelerators. The logo in this form dates back to 1968, when a decision was made to change the CERN logo from the original one, seen here. Some 114 new designs were proposed, many of which used CERN’s experiments as inspiration. The final design used the original lettering, surrounded by a schematic of a synchrotron, beam lines and particle tracks. Today’s logo is a simplified version of this.

Will CERN open a door to another dimension?

CERN will not open a door to another dimension. If the experiments conducted at the LHC demonstrate the existence of certain particles it could help physicists to test various theories about nature and our Universe, such as the presence of extra dimensions. There is more information here.

What did Stephen Hawking say about Higgs potential destroying the Universe?

Hawking was not discussing the work being done at the LHC.

The LHC observes nature at a fundamental level but does not influence it. Measurements of the Higgs bosonhave allowed us to learn more about the intrinsic nature of the Universe, and it is this that Hawking was discussing. The measured properties of the boson suggest that the Universe is in a quasi-stable equilibrium, though with a lifetime far exceeding anything we can imagine (10¹⁰⁰ years). This is explained further in the TEDxCERN talk below:

http://tedxcern.web.cern.ch/video/2013/what-higgs-might-mean-fate-universe

Why does CERN appear in Google Maps when I type certain keywords?

Many of these associations have no grounding in fact, and are a possible result of several users renaming locations on their own maps, keyword searches, or from lots of users creating custom maps, which utilise those search terms.

Can the LHC have an influence on weather patterns and natural phenomena?

No. The magnets at CERN have an electromagnetic field, which is contained with the magnets themselves and therefore cannot influence the Earth’s magnetic field, nor the weather. The strength of the LHC magnets (8.36 teslas) is comparable to the magnetic field found in PET-MRI scanners (up to 9.4 tesla), which are regularly used for brain scans.

Will CERN generate a black hole?

The LHC will not generate black holes in the cosmological sense. However, some theories suggest that the formation of tiny 'quantum' black holes may be possible. The observation of such an event would be thrilling in terms of our understanding of the Universe; and would be perfectly safe. More information is available here.

I saw a video of a strange ritual at CERN, is it real?

No, this video from summer 2016 was a work of fiction showing a contrived scene. CERN does not condone this kind of action, which breaches CERN’s professional guidelines. Those involved were identified and apropriate measures taken.

Does the LHC trigger earthquakes?

The LHC does not trigger earthquakes. Earthquakes are a natural hazard caused by the movement of tectonic plates. As these rigid plates move towards, apart or past each other they can lock up and build up huge stresses at their boundaries, such as the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, or along the Pacific rim. When the plates suddenly slip apart, this stress is relieved, releasing huge amounts of energy and causing an earthquake.

Several million earthquakes occur across the Earth each year but most are too small to be detected without monitoring equipment. There is no means by which the LHC could trigger earthquakes, and no correlation between LHC operation and the occurrence of earthquakes.

Anecdote: Some high precision instruments at CERN are able to detect earthquakes due to their sensitivity to tiny movements. In the LHC, there are more than 100 Hydrostatic Levelling Sensors that monitor the relative displacements of the magnets that steer beams of particles around the LHC’s 27 km ring. These sensors can detect the waves emitted by earthquakes occurring even very far away after their journey through the Earth. Another tool, the Precision Laser Inclinometer, is used to measure the movements of underground structures that can affect the precise positioning of the LHC’s particle detectors. These are also sensitive enough to detect earthquakes.

CERN has a rich educational and cultural programme. As an integral part of this programme, tours of the Laboratory are free of charge.

Find out more about CERN tours via visit.cern, which includes frequently asked questions about CERN tours.

How to get to CERN.