The world’s most powerful particle accelerator has gone silent, but only for now.
The European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) has switched off the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the giant machine that helped discover the Higgs boson, popularly known as the “God Particle,” in 2012.
The shutdown, which began on June 29, marks the start of a planned four-year upgrade that will transform the collider into a much more powerful version called the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC).
The upgraded machine is scheduled to restart in June 2030.
Located in a 27-kilometre circular tunnel beneath the France-Switzerland border near Geneva, the LHC accelerates protons to nearly the speed of light before smashing them together.
These collisions recreate conditions that existed just after the Big Bang, helping scientists understand the fundamental building blocks of the Universe.
WHY HAS CERN SHUT DOWN LHC?
The shutdown, known as Long Shutdown 3 (LS3), is one of the biggest engineering projects in CERN’s history.
Over the next four years, scientists and engineers will replace and upgrade key components, including powerful superconducting magnets, new radiofrequency “crab cavities” that improve beam alignment, and more advanced particle detectors.
The goal is to dramatically increase the collider’s luminosity, a scientific term that refers to how many particle collisions occur over a given period.
Higher luminosity means far more collision data, allowing researchers to study extremely rare particles and processes that are difficult to detect today.
The upgraded HL-LHC is expected to deliver around 10 times more data over its lifetime than the current LHC.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN 2030?
When the HL-LHC begins operations in 2030, scientists expect it to produce roughly five to seven times more collisions every second than the current machine and collect much larger datasets overall.
This will allow physicists to measure the Higgs boson with unprecedented precision, search for particles linked to dark matter, and investigate why the universe contains far more matter than antimatter.
Although the Higgs boson completed the Standard Model, the theory describing the known fundamental particles, it does not explain mysteries such as dark matter or dark energy, which together are thought to make up about 95% of the universe.
Researchers hope the upgraded collider will provide clues to these unanswered questions.
Even while the accelerator remains switched off, the work at CERN will continue.
Thousands of scientists will spend the next four years analysing the enormous amount of data already collected, while engineers prepare the world’s most famous particle collider for its next chapter in 2030.
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