LHCP (Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference 2023), one of the most important conferences in modern science, is being held in Belgrade this year. More than 400 physicists from around the world will attende it in order to discuss the latest research results in the field of elementary particles that the universe is consisted of, and the future of particle accelerators.
The prestigious LHCP conference, dedicated to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) physics at CERN – the largest particle accelerator of today, will be held from May 22 to 26 at the Metropol Hotel in Belgrade. The conference is organized by the Institute of Physics Belgrade and the Faculty of Physics University of Belgrade.
LHC, the largest accelerator in the world, located in a 27-kilometer-long tunnel 100 meters underground near Geneva, is an instrument that accelerates beams of protons, and physicists use multiple detectors in different experiments to observe their collisions in order to investigate the structure of matter. Serbian physicists working in several research teams participate in these measurements together with colleagues from Europe and the world, which was crucial for the Republic of Serbia to become the twenty-third full member of CERN in 2019.
The LHC has been operating since 2011, and the data collected on it the very next year, 2012, made it possible to discover the Higgs boson. This particle, refered to as God in the media, was predicted by the so-called Standard Model of particle physics since the 1960s, but it was necessary to build an accelerator like the LHC at CERN to confirm its existence. After the first launch of the LHC and a series of measurements that lasted two years, physicists conducted two more large measurement campaigns at increasingly higher collision energies, called Run-2 (2015-2018) and Run-3 (2022-present).
The Belgrade LHCP conference’s program includes a detailed review of the latest experimental and theoretical results based on the data collected during Run-2, as well as the first results obtained based on Run-3 measurements, which are in progress. Also, the community of high-energy physicists (as scientists who study elementary particles are addressed) will discuss future research directions at the conference, both theoretical and experimental. The main goal of the conference is to provide a space for vigorous and lively discussion among physicists studying the Standard Model as well as alternative physical theories.
The conference in Belgrade is organized after previously held conferences in Barcelona (2013), New York (2014), Saint Petersburg (2015), Lund (2016), Shanghai (2017), Bologna (2018), Puebla (2019) and Taipei (2022). The conference includes a series of additional programs side scientific, including a scientific-diplomatic forum, an innovation panel, a visit to companies cooperating with CERN, and others. John Ellis lecture, one of today’s most respected physicists, is certainly among the most interesting events, and it will be held on Thursday, May 25 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of Serbia, open to the general public.