Pupils hunt for the Higgs Boson at CERN

Pupils hunt for the Higgs boson and Antimatter particles at CERN
KS5 Physics pupils were inspired by a visit to CERN, Geneva, the home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during a visit over the festive Christmas break. Pupils discovered how CERN is helping to answer some of the most fundamental questions; how did the Universe begin? What are the basic building blocks of matter? The scale of the science and technology at CERN was awe-inspiring and an inspiration to staff and pupils. We had an opportunity to experience the most cutting-edge technical and engineering developments in multinational experimental collaborations, as well as meet researchers who work on the experiments. This certainly was an opportunity to influence young people’s future education and career choices.
The first evening in Geneva upon arrival, we had an opportunity to experience the festive spirit of Christmas in the Old Town of Geneva meandering through the streets, chocolatiers and boutiques. By chance, our arrival coincided with the Fête de l'Escalade, which is Geneva's festival of the people. We saw local citizens celebrate the history of Geneva through a torchlight parade in period costumes, commemorating the city's escape from capture in 1602.
Saturday morning, we arrived at CERN for our day with a little peppering of lovely white snow. We watched a series of short films in the CERN auditorium, Discover CERN, The case of the (still) mysterious Universe and finally on Subatomic particles to Society. We learnt how the organisation was founded in 1954. The films gave an insight into the most important moments of CERN’s history and how the Laboratory became a model for international collaboration with research taking place on CERN’s first accelerator, the synchrocyclotron, installed back in 1957. Have you ever heard of the Higgs boson? Its discovery in 2012, at CERN, completed the theory that explains the visible Universe around us, and led to a Nobel prize in 2013 awarded to François Englert and Peter Higgs "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider"
We had an opportunity to meet researchers at CERN whether university undergraduates gaining their first taste of working in an international environment to PhD students analysing experimental data and experienced engineers and physicists leading projects or representing their experimental collaborations. We were fortunate to have had the privilege of a tour of the Antimatter laboratory guided by Fionn Milhench. He is researching antimatter more specifically antiprotons. He talked from his personal experience about his contribution to CERN’s research programme, which was inspiring. Antimatter is already used in medical applications (Positron Emission Tomography or PET imaging), but now further research is required and access to antimatter is very limited. Could antimatter be used as an intergalactic fuel? Could the immense energy produced from an antimatter – matter annihilation events be harnessed purposefully? The energy is a billion times more powerful than our equivalent mass carbon fuels, but how do we store antimatter and transport it as a fuel? These are just some of the questions that are being posed and researched. Sadly, currently it takes ten billion years to produce 1g of antimatter and all the antiprotons produced at CERN would only power an 100W light bulb for 1 minute, yes! 1 minute only. We had a tour of ELENA (Extra Low Energy Antiproton ring) which is a compact synchrotron which slows down the antiprotons allowing them to be captured more easily in the experiments.
We also had tour control centre of the ATLAS experiment, one of the two experiments at CERN that discovered the Higgs boson. We visit the SM18 test facility, located in France, near the Meyrin site. This was originally built to test and validate the magnets and radiofrequency (RF) cavities of LEP (the Large Electron–Positron Collider). This was immersive space with interactive exhibits that showcase cutting-edge technologies being developed and that have been developed and tested at SM18. We learnt about the quadrupole magnets directing and focussing the beams just before the collision point. The LHC is undergoing a major upgrade to become the future HL-LHC (High Luminosity) and so SM18 is now ready to welcome the magnets and RF cavities of the future HL-LHC to be placed in their final configuration. We learnt how the crab cavities play an important role in this upgrade.
We also explored the several exhibitions including: Accelerate and Collide. We explored the CERN site through viewers and touchscreens, learning about the different detectors ATLAS and CMS. We looked into the Large Hadron Collider experimental caverns using virtual reality headsets. Of course we had to play Proton football, an activity where two of us each kick a proton that is projected on the floor. The harder we kick, the more energy there will be in the resulting collision. The exhibitions were houses in pods off a main stem corridor each having their own theme. We spent some time trying one hands on activity where we operated a crane and had to collaborate to lower or raise a scale model of a detector piece up and down a shaft.
In the Back to the Big Bang exhibition, there was a tactile timeline highlighting key moments in the history of the Universe taking the journey back 13.8 billion years, to the very beginning of time. We discovered how the Universe evolved to become what we see around us today. There was also contemporary art space: Exploring the unknown: We saw how the artists in residence on the Arts at CERN programme were inspired by their exchanges with CERN scientists to explore topics such as the emptiness of space, the invisible and space and time through original art works on display. One such piece was Chroma VII designed by Artist Yunchul Kim.It is a large, knotted form inspired by the connections between space, energy, and matter consisting of 324 cells made of transparent polymers that constantly change colour and pattern when friction and pressure are applied by each kinetic movement, it was just beautiful.
In the evening, we had a belly-satisfying fondue night at the Edelweiss hotel accompanied by traditional music such as the alpine horn, cowbells, spoons and plenty of yodelling. We devoured the fondue menu in 3 different courses, cheese fondue, beef fondue and finally as dessert, chocolate fondue. Our free time was spent exploring the Old Town, The Jet d'Eau – a water fountain born by chance, The Reformation Wall, St. Peter's Cathedral, return visits to the Lindt Factory shop for a ‘pure chocolate’ hot chocolate. Some pupils were significantly delayed by the lure of the Patek Philippe Museum discovering one of today’s most extraordinary horological collections. In doing so, they experienced the love of the Geneva’s watchmaking tradition over a cup of delightful winter tea thus ensuring they quote “that this cultural heritage would be handed down to future generations” i.e. us the King’s KS5 Physics students. We can all but only hope that we will one day have a Patek Philippe watch. It was just the most wonderful trip – in 3 days our minds, hearts, souls and taste buds were challenged and stimulated!