Large Hadron Collider

Founded in 1954, the CERN laboratory sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and has 23 member states as of now.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It is a part of the CERN’s accelerator complex.
Inside the accelerator, two high-energy 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.
Discoveries are made when these resulting collisions behave differently than the existing laws of physics would predict or when they behave in predicted but never-before-seen ways.
Studying the patterns in the emission of these particles help us understand the properties and structure of particles.

Physicists at CERN may be on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough, announcing they have observed particles that seem to violate our most comprehensive understanding of how the universe works.

While the findings were not sufficiently strong to be counted as a discovery, CERN scientists revealed that the anomaly they had detected was confirmed and required new physical processes, such as the existence of new fundamental particles or interactions.

In 2016, India became an associate member of the CERN and with this, CERN allows Indian companies to bid for engineering contracts and Indians can apply for staff positions at the organisation.
Indian scientists have played a significant role in the A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) and Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments that led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson.

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