The LHC physics programme will continue for at least fifteen years, and the Bristol team are already involved in the design upgraded detectors to be used from 2017. The field of elementary particle physics is entering one of the most exciting phases in its history, with many long-standing questions due to be answered.
Physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider have received an early Christmas present. Using apparatus partly designed in Bristol, the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) collaboration has presented the first tentative evidence of the Higgs boson. The discovery of this new particle has been described as the 'holy grail of particle physics' and would confirm our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature. The Higgs boson is a key component of the Standard Model of matter and forces. This theory describes how physics works 'behind the scenes', and describes how the Universe looked around one picosecond after the Big Bang. The Higgs is often described as giving the other particles mass, but in fact plays a more fundamental role: it allows three of the four known forces of nature to be described by a single equation. This paves the way for 'grand unified theory' at yet higher energies, combining all known fundamental laws into a simple mathematical structure.
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