The Geneva-based accelerator, the world’s most powerful, first circulated beams in 2008 and delivered the 2012 Higgs boson discovery.
That finding confirmed the existence of the Higgs field—an invisible energy field thought to fill the universe—underscoring the stakes of the multiyear overhaul.
Can the world's most powerful machine, a huge energy consumer, also pioneer the future of sustainable green science?
After a $1.5 billion upgrade, will the LHC finally solve the mystery of dark matter, or just find more questions?
Could new US funding rules jeopardize the global scientific alliance searching for the universe's deepest secrets at CERN?
The High-Luminosity LHC Upgrade: Transforming CERN’s Collider for 10x More Data and Unprecedented Discoveries (2026–2042)
Overview
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) began its third Long Shutdown (LS3) in June 2026, marking a transformative pause aimed at preparing for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade. This period involves complex engineering and technological advancements across the accelerator, designed to dramatically boost performance and enable physicists to collect much more data. Achieving these ambitious goals requires a global collaborative effort, with international partnerships playing a crucial role in implementing intricate upgrades. These efforts ensure the LHC remains a leader in particle physics research, allowing deeper exploration of the universe’s fundamental questions for years to come.