India has made global headlines in the world of science as the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics—often dubbed the “Oscars of Science”—has been awarded to researchers involved in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments at CERN, Switzerland. Indian scientists and institutions have played a vital role in two of the LHC’s flagship experiments: ALICE and CMS, reaffirming India’s long-standing tradition of excellence in high-energy physics.
🔬 Why in News?
The award recognizes thousands of researchers worldwide who co-authored scientific papers based on Run-2 data from 2015 to mid-2024 at the LHC. This global honor includes numerous Indian scientists, whose work has been instrumental in areas like:
- Quark-gluon plasma
- Higgs boson
- Matter-antimatter asymmetry
- Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics
🏆 About the Breakthrough Prize
- Established: 2012 by Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech entrepreneurs.
- Categories: Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences, Mathematics.
- Prize Money: $3 million per award — the richest individual science award globally.
- Goal: Celebrate transformative scientific advances and inspire the next generation.
🔬 About CERN & LHC
- CERN: European Organization for Nuclear Research, based in Geneva.
- LHC: World’s most powerful particle accelerator.
- Purpose: Explore fundamental forces and particles — e.g., discovering the Higgs boson (2012), studying early-universe conditions, etc.
🇮🇳 India’s Long-standing Collaboration with CERN
- Initial ties: Since the 1960s via TIFR.
- Formal agreements: Cooperation Agreement in 1991; MoU in 2009.
- Status: Became an Associate Member of CERN in 2017.
🔧 India’s Key Contributions to ALICE & CMS
🔸 ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment)
- Institutions: VECC, SINP, IOP-Bhubaneswar, IIT Bombay, Panjab University, AMU, etc.
- Key Contributions:
- Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD)
- Muon Spectrometer
- Research on quark-gluon plasma, resonance production, and event-by-event fluctuations
🔹 CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid)
- Institutions: TIFR, BARC, IISc, IITs, NISER, IISERs, BIT Mesra, Delhi University, etc.
- Key Contributions:
- Trigger systems, Silicon Preshower Detector
- Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs)
- Research in Higgs boson, top-quark, supersymmetry, and BSM physics
🧪 Technical & Computing Infrastructure
- Developed by BARC & RRCAT:
- Superconducting magnets
- Beam instrumentation
- Cryogenics
- Vacuum systems & RF modules
- In Global LHC Computing Grid (WLCG):
- Tier-2 data centers hosted at TIFR, VECC
- Support over 17.5 million ALICE computing jobs
- 17,400 cores and 12 PB storage capacity
🎓 Academic & Training Impact
- 110+ PhD theses and 130+ research papers from Indian teams
- Exposure to:
- Instrumentation
- Scientific computing
- Global collaborative research
🔭 Future Indian Contributions
- ALICE:
- Development of FoCal (Forward Calorimeter) for precise photon/pion measurements
- CMS Phase-2 Upgrades:
- Outer Tracker (OT)
- Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM)
- High Granular Calorimeter (HGCAL)
- Enhanced Trigger systems
🏁 Conclusion
India’s role in the LHC’s transformative research has been integral and sustained, blending scientific rigor with engineering excellence. The 2025 Breakthrough Prize stands as a testament to the global impact of Indian science, and positions the country as a leading force in cutting-edge physics well into the future.
