The future of particle physics is coming soon and UF researchers are on the cutting edge. Particle physicists all over the world are working to complete the world's largest particle accelerator located near Geneva. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is currently constructing what it calls its "Large Hadron Collider," to which UF is a top contributor. A supercollider functions by creating collisions between subatomic particles at high velocities and then measuring the result. When completed the LHC will be a ring 2.67 miles across and will be the most powerful supercollider ever built. "To me it's always ironic that to look for the smallest things in the universe...you need to build [on] the scale of something...[this] massive," said Darin Acosta, an associate professor and particle physics researcher at UF.

The LHC is designed to produce particle collisions with seven times the energy of the current largest accelerator, the Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. The increase in the number of collisions is equally as important as the leap in the magnitude of the collisions, as the LHC is expected to be used much more often, yielding much more data. UF has been working on the Compact Muon Solenoid, one of the two major detector arrays that will be used in the LHC. The CMS is a 12,500 ton-array of detectors involving the largest solenoid, an electromagnet composed of coils of wire, ever built. At maximum power, the magnet stores enough energy to melt 18 tons of solid gold.

Acosta is one of six UF faculty members working on the CMS project. "The overall purpose...is to try to answer some fundamental questions about...how the universe works," he said. One of the most pressing issues that will be investigated with the LHC is the Higgs mechanism, named after physicist Peter Higgs. The theory states that there is something called a Higgs field, and the interaction of all matter with that field is what gives matter its mass. If the theory of the Higgs mechanism were correct, it would require the existence of a particle called the Higgs boson, which the LHC is expected to be able to detect. "It needs to be there otherwise nothing makes sense," Acosta said. "But it doesn't explain a lot." Finding the Higgs boson would wrap up some of the missing parts of standard models of physics and hopefully steer physicists in the right direction to theories that go beyond the current working model.

At UF, the search for the Higgs boson has led the university to the forefront of theoretical physics. "[UF] is one of the largest participating groups...worldwide on CMS," Acosta said. In addition to the six faculty members, approximately a dozen graduate students and a number of undergraduate students have participated in the development of the project. Nicholas Park, a UF physics junior, was one of the undergraduate students who contributed time to the project. Park got involved in the project after attending a UF Society of Physics Students meeting in which Acosta discussed the CMS project. At first he began by writing computer code to handle information between the physical detectors and the computers for analysis. As the project progressed, he became more involved in testing the detectors. "Overall it was just an excellent experience," Park said. "Getting a chance to work with experimentalists, doing an actual project...gives you a chance to see what the non-classroom aspect of a physicist's life may be like." When he began his work Park was surprised at the size of the undertaking and how many people were involved. "I had people I was collaborating with...across the country," Park said. "Everyone's building a piece and they'll put it all together in a year or two."

The sheer scope of the project is not lost on those who are not involved on the project. When Christoph Nielubowicz, an engineering junior, learned of the project, he said he was impressed. "I'm proud to know the college I'm attending is part of such a large project," he said. "Hopefully we'll gain some sort of recognition for it."