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How did experiments at the Large Hadron Collider lead to the discovery of the Higgs boson?

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Diagram of a linear proton resonance accelerator, or linac, showing protons entering from a source, passing through a series of labeled drift tubes powered by a radio-frequency source, and exiting as a beam through a cavity. — particle accelerator The accelerator is a large-diameter tube within which an electric field oscillates at a high radio frequency. Within the accelerator tube are smaller diameter metallic drift tubes, which are carefully sized and spaced to shield the protons from decelerating oscillations of the electric field. In the spaces between the drift tubes, the electric field is oriented properly to accelerate the protons in their direction of travel.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN enabled the discovery of the Higgs boson by reaching energy levels previously unavailable for experimental research.12

Physicists had long sought the particle to explain why elementary subatomic particles possess mass, a mechanism proposed by Peter Higgs and others in the 1960s. To test this, the LHC accelerates two counterrotating beams of protons to speeds near the speed of light and forces them to collide at specific points along its 27-km ring. These high-energy collisions, which simulate conditions from the early universe, allow for the production of particles that cannot be observed at lower energies.12

In 2012, scientists at the LHC detected a signal consistent with a Higgs boson with a mass of approximately 125–126 gigaelectron volts. This observation provided the necessary experimental evidence for the Higgs field, and further data confirmed the discovery in 2013.12