Indian Researchers Honored in 2025 Breakthrough Prize for LHC Contributions
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Event | 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics awarded to teams involved in LHC experiments at CERN. |
| Prize Details | Established in 2012 by tech leaders; $3 million award; recognizes advances in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences, and Mathematics. |
| CERN & LHC | CERN: European Organization for Nuclear Research. LHC: World's most powerful particle accelerator, studying Higgs boson, quark-gluon plasma, and matter-antimatter asymmetry. |
| India's Involvement | 1960s: Initial involvement via TIFR. 1991: Cooperation Agreement. 2002: Observer Status. 2017: Associate Member State. |
| Key Experiments | ALICE: Studies quark-gluon plasma; Indian contributions include Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD). CMS: Focus on Higgs boson, top-quark; contributions include Trigger systems and Silicon Preshower Detector. |
| Technical Contributions | BARC & RRCAT developed superconducting magnets, cryogenics, beam instrumentation. WLCG: Tier-2 centers at TIFR, VECC (17,400 cores, 12 PB storage). |
| Training & Research | 110+ PhD theses, 130+ papers from ALICE & CMS data. Exposure to scientific computing, instrumentation, and global collaboration. |
| Future Contributions | ALICE: Forward Calorimeter (FoCal). CMS: Phase-2 Upgrades (Outer Tracker, GEM, HGCAL, Trigger systems). |