What was behind the biggest physics discovery of last year?

The discovery of the Higgs particle last year at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator in Geneva caused quite a stir and may well be considered the physics discovery of 2013 – reason enough for ETH Zurich to make it the topic of this year’s Wolfgang Pauli Lectures. Next week, three CERN scientists who were instrumental in the discovery will be talking about their backgrounds in a series of lectures intended for researchers, students and the public.

These are a theoretical physicist who will explain what the Higgs particle means for theoretical physics, a scientist who was in charge the development and construction of the LHC, and a scientist who has long served as project manager for one of the two large experiments undertaken to demonstrate the existence of the Higgs particle.

Giudice, Jenni and Evans

The Italian physicist Gian Francesco Giudice works in the Theoretical Physics Division at CERN and deals mainly with physics at very high energies, as they existed at the time of our universe’s origin. He is the author of the popular science book A Zeptospace Odyssey, in which he examines several topics, including the physics of the LHC, in a way that is also accessible to an interested layperson. In his lecture on Monday, Giudice will not only explain the gaps the Higgs particle fills in the puzzle of particle physics, he will also discuss the new physical questions the discovery raises – including ones that go beyond the Standard Model of particle physics and concern what is referred to as supersymmetry.

The Swiss physicist Peter Jenni, alumnus and holder of an honorary doctorate title from ETH Zurich, was in charge of the Atlas Experiment at the LHC from the very start of the project in the 1990s until 2009. Atlas is one of two large detectors at the particle accelerator that succeeded in delivering experimental evidence of the existence of the Higgs particle (the other particle detector is CMS). Since his retirement a year ago, Jenni has worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. His lecture on Tuesday will focus on the background leading up to the experimental discovery of the Higgs particle.

The British physicist Lyn Evans led the team from 1993 that designed, built and commissioned the LHC particle accelerator at CERN. He is currently a visiting professor at Imperial College in London. His lecture on Thursday will focus on the LHC itself, which is considered to be the most complex research facility ever built.