Cern awarded top researchers: breakthrough in particle physics!

Cern awarded top researchers: breakthrough in particle physics!

The latest achievements in particle physics were recognized on April 5, 2025 in Los Angeles with the awarding of the "Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics". This award went to the four major experiments on CERN: Alice, Atlas, CMS and LHCB. Over 10,000 scientists from more than 70 countries are involved in these significant collaborations and make a decisive contribution to researching the universe. According to tu-dortmund.de The examination of unknown particles and the analysis of already discovered elementary particles are carried out.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), an underground circle accelerator with a circumference of around 27 kilometers, accelerates proton packages at almost light speed for collisions. These collisions lead to the production of numerous elementary particles, the energies and decay processes of which are precisely measured by extensive detectors. TU physicists, such as Prof. Johannes Albrecht and Dr. Dominik Mitzel at the LHCB experiment as well as Prof. Kevin Kröninger and Dr. Chris Malena Delitzsch at the Atlas experiment are actively involved in this research.

honor for outstanding services

The awarding of the Breakthrough Prize is recognized by the extraordinary contributions of the LHC experiments, which have been working at the basic research interface in the past ten years. The award ceremony was organized by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and is a sign of recognition for the detailed measurements of the Higgs Boson properties, the discovery of new particles and the study of rare physical processes and the matter animacy asymmetry.

The award was accepted by the speakers of the respective cooperation, whereby Fabiola Gianotti, the General Director of CERN, expressed its joy over the recognition of the achievements of the LHC cooperation. The prize money of $ 3 million is donated to the CERN & Society Foundation and is to be used to finance scholarships for doctoral students who spend the research time on Cern.

The way forward

The importance of the LHC experiments goes beyond the current discoveries. From 2030, a large upgrade of the LHC, known as high-luminosity LHC, will significantly increase the potential for discovery, which opens up new opportunities in fundamental physics. In addition to researching the Higgs boson, which was discovered in 2012 by the Atlas and CMS experiments, Alice will examine the properties of curd-gluon plasma-a state of matter that existed in the early universe.

The work of the LHC cooperation is not only fundamental to our understanding of physics, they also contribute to the development of further projects at the TU Dortmund, such as the planned cluster of excellence "Color meets flavor". Such initiatives illustrate how interdisciplinary research and international cooperation are crucial to expand the limits of scientific knowledge.