The upcoming director of CERN stated that advanced artificial intelligence is revolutionizing basic physics and opening windows for the fate of the universe.
Professor Marktomson, a British physicist who will take on the leadership at CERN on January 1, 2026, envisions progress in particle physics comparable to the AI-driven prediction of protein structure that recently won Google Deepmind Scientists an award. Speculations suggest a potential Nobel Prize in October.
With the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) playing a key role, there is hope to unravel how particles obtained mass at the moment of the Big Bang and whether our universe is extraordinary. Professor Marktomson mentioned the adoption of a similar strategy to potentially avert a catastrophic collapse event.
Tomson emphasized, “These are not just incremental improvements, but rather significant strides achieved by embracing cutting-edge techniques.”
He also added, “The field will undergo a transformative change. Dealing with complex data like protein folding presents intricate challenges, and employing advanced AI technologies can lead to breakthroughs.”
CERN’s council anticipates a promising future with revolutionary advancements. Despite skepticism following the groundbreaking Higgs boson discovery in 2012, Professor Thomson believes that AI brings a fresh perspective to explore new frontiers in physics. The enhanced beam strength of LHC is expected to enable unprecedented observations of the Higgs boson, also known as the “God particle,” shedding light on other particles and the universe at large.
There is a particular focus on measuring the Higgs boson’s self-coupling, which plays a critical role in understanding how particles acquire mass and the evolution of the Higgs field post-Big Bang. Higgs’ self-coupling strength is crucial for determining the stability of the Higgs field and potential future transitions.
Dr. Matthew McCallow, a theoretical physicist at CERN, emphasized that the exploration of Higgs’ self-coupling is significant for advancing our understanding of the universe’s fundamental characteristics. Integrating AI into LHC operations has streamlined data collection and interpretation processes, enabling faster decision-making for experiments like the LHC ATLAS project.
Scientists have long sought to uncover dark matter using the LHC, considering it comprises a significant portion of the universe. With AI’s assistance, researchers hope to untangle this mystery. Thomson remarked, “AI allows us to pose more intricate and open-ended queries rather than merely searching for specific signals, hoping to uncover unexpected insights within the data.”
Source: www.theguardian.com