Was the discovery of the Higgs boson the pinnacle for high-energy physics at CERN?

It’s rare in physics to be able to say “I was there” when a great discovery is announced. But several hundred people certainly enjoyed that privilege 10 years ago on 4 July 2012 as they crammed into CERN’s main auditorium. There they heard Joe Incandela and then Fabiola Gianotti – spokespeople for the CMS and ATLAS collaborations respectively – reveal the latest data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The Higgs boson (or at least “a Higgs boson”) had been discovered. “I think we have it,” as CERN boss Rolf Dieter Heuer declared.

But what was astounding for such a technical discussion was that hundreds of thousands of people had tuned in from around the world to witness the event online. Hardcore particle physics had never been so popular, with non-physicists able to listen to discussions of the Standard Model, decay channels and standard  deviations.

The announcement was a high-water mark for CERN. Over the previous few years, news about the LHC had been dominated by its early malfunction and scare stories the collider might make tiny – but potentially Earth-destroying – black holes.

Another celebration for high-energy physics that matches the discovery of the Higgs may be a long time coming.

In the July 2022 edition of Physics World magazine, which is now out in print and digital formats, Achintya Rao, who was working as a science communicator for CERN at the time, reveals the story of how the day unfolded for him and others at CERN (you can also read his article online here).

The announcement of the Higgs boson was brilliantly choreographed by CERN, which let CMS and ATLAS take joint credit. In that way, the lab avoided a repeat of the messiness surrounding the discovery of the W and Z bosons 30 years earlier when one collaboration (UA1) hogged the limelight over the other (UA2). There was more good news in 2013 when Peter Higgs and François Englert shared that year’s Nobel Prize for Physics.

Sadly, that early momentum was not sustained. Particle physicists hoped that signs of supersymmetry would be forthcoming but nature has not played ball.

Headlines over the last decade have instead been dominated by astronomy and astrophysics, with the discovery of gravitational waves and the imaging of black holes. A lot rests on the LHC’s Run 3, which is now under way, and on the subsequent conversion of the LHC into the High-Luminosity LHC. That upgrade will boost the machine’s luminosity 10-fold when it comes online in the 2030s.

And yet the future for high-energy physics is uncertain, as Michael Riordan warns in the new issue.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will see CERN end its co-operative agreements with Russia. Japan looks unlikely to build the International Linear Collider, while China’s plans for the China Electron Positron Collider may be too ambitious for even this scientific powerhouse.

In the US, Fermilab’s new director Lia Merminga is concentrating on “high-intensity” experiments, after the shutdown of the Tevatron collider, as she explains in an interview with Laura Hiscott.

Another celebration for high-energy physics that matches the discovery of the Higgs may be a long time coming.

For the record, here’s a full rundown of what is in the issue. Remember that if you’re a member of the Institute of Physics, you can read the whole of Physics World magazine every month via our digital apps for iOS, Android and Web browsers. Let us know what you think about the issue on Twitter, Facebook or by e-mailing us at pwld@ioppublishing.org.

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• How to become a better supervisor – Rikke Plougmann argues that PhD students can only thrive if their wellbeing – and not just their scientific development – is properly supported

• A day in physics like no other – Achintya Rao recollects the momentous day 10 years ago when CERN announced it had discovered the Higgs boson

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