Four large experiment collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, which include ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb, have received the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The researchers from CERN were awarded for the Run-2 data results.
A group of researchers from the Institute’s Laboratory for High Energy Physics, participating in the ATLAS experiment, has contributed to this prestigious recognition. They work on exploring Standard Model properties, measuring the Higgs boson and top quark parameters, and searching for physics beyond the Standard Model. The Institute’s researchers played a leading role in measuring the mass of the W boson, determining the Yukawa coupling between the top quark and the Higgs boson, and researching supersymmetry. They have also played a role in developing data collection triggers for the identification of jets originating from b-quarks, as well as for the measurement of the experiment’s total luminosity.
The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics has been awarded since 2012 to researchers in the fields of theoretical, mathematical and experimental physics who have made transformative contributions to fundamental physics, particularly through their most recent findings. As the CERN announcement elaborates, this year, the prize has been presented for ‘detailed measurements of Higgs boson properties confirming the symmetry-breaking mechanism of mass generation, the discovery of new strongly interacting particles, the study of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the exploration of nature at the shortest distances and most extreme conditions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider’.
The monetary component of the prize amounts to $3 million, with $1 million allocated to the ATLAS experiment. These funds will be used to award scholarships to selected doctoral students, enabling them to spend two years at CERN working on their doctoral theses.