Large Hadron Collider Comes Back Online To Unlock More Big Bang Secrets

The number of particle collision experiments in Run 3 is expected to be increased by a factor of three, while ion collision experiment results are expected to be multiplied by a factor of 50 compared to previous runs. With the number of experiments going up, CERN hopes to unravel more details about the elusive Higgs boson, which also goes by the awesome name “God Particle.” Fundamentally associated with what scientists call a Higgs field, the latter is believed to be the force that gives mass to other fundamental particles such as electrons.

Following its proposed existence in 1946 by Peter Higgs, it was the LHC that ultimately appeared to prove the existence of the Higgs boson in 2012 with the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN. LHC is somewhat of a freak, as it handles temperatures that are over 100,000 times hotter than the Sun’s heart after protons collide. The upcoming wave of experiments at the facility in Geneva will also be the most rigorous tests for the application of the Standard Model of particle physics.

With the particle accelerator now gearing up for a souped-up run, the continuation of ATLAS and CMS tests will possibly reveal more details such as how Higgs bosons interact, the role played by the eponymous field for other particles, and whether it can finally unlock the doors to understanding dark matter and dark energy. The scientific community is also hoping to learn more about neutrinos and unearth more mysteries of the universe at sub-atomic levels.