Large Hadron Collider at CERN restarts after 3-year hiatus to locate fifth force of nature

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was restarted on April 22 and is ready to smash protons again after a three-year hiatus. After the discovery of the Higgs Boson or ‘The God Particle’, scientists are hopeful of yet another breakthrough- which is confirming the existence of a fifth force of nature. Earlier last year, scientists working with the LHC reported having discovered a signal pointing towards a new kind of physics. 

The LHC is a particle accelerator which was first started in September 2008 and was shut down in December 2018 for maintenance, consolidation and upgrade work. Meant to test theories on particle physics, the LHC's biggest achievement has been the Higgs Boson which proved crucial in understanding the origin of mass.

In a statement by Europe's nuclear research institute CERN, it noted that two beams of protons have started circulating in opposite directions around the LHC's 27-kilometre ring. CERN’s Director for Accelerators and Technology, Mike Lamont, said that the LHC will now operate at even higher energy and that the experts will work around the clock to progressively recommission the machine. The restarting of LHC has marked the end of its second-longest shutdown and scientists now aim to conduct collision experiments record energy of 13.6 trillion electronvolts (13.6 TeV).

Dr Mitesh Patel, a particle physicist at Imperial College London said as per The Guardian, "We are going into this run with more optimism that there could be a revolution coming. Fingers crossed". Further detailing the third run of the LHC, called Run 3, CERN said that the following unprecedented number of collisions will allow international teams of physicists to study the Higgs boson in great detail. 

What is the Higgs Boson?

As mentioned above, the Higgs Boson, which is named after Edinburgh University physicist Peter Higgs, helps in understanding the origin of mass. It basically explains the existence of the Higgs field, which according to scientists, was responsible for the weight of particles after they originated from the big bang. According to existing theory, the Higgs field is a theoretical, invisible energy field which spans the whole universe, and any particle interacting with this field gains mass.