News Releases
Toshiba’s Technical Contribution to Apparent Discovery of the Higgs Boson
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has announced the discovery of what appears to be the Higgs boson, a hypothetical elementary particle in particle physics’ standard model. Toshiba is proud to be associated with this discovery through the supply of key systems for the CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The new particle was discovered by experiments in the 27-kilometer loop of the LHC that accelerated protons to high levels of kinetic energy in opposite directions and then smashed them into each other to produce new particles.
Toshiba delivered to KEK, Japan’s High Energy Particle Accelerator Research Organization, an ATLAS Central Solenoid Magnet System in 2001 and superconductive quadrupole magnets in 2004. These were installed in the LHC.
The superconductive quadrupole magnets are used to narrow down the proton beams. The ATLAS Central Solenoid Magnet System is used to generate magnetic field essential for the detection of particles. Both items of equipment play important roles in the LHC.