Can a new collider reveal the last secrets of the Higgs boson?

The most famous subatomic particle has revealed nothing we didn’t expect – so far. Now physicists want to build a “Higgs factory” to better interrogate it for signs of new physics

By Thomas Lewton

FOR half a century, finding the Higgs boson was top of particle physicists’ to-do lists. Its eventual discovery in 2012 was celebrated as the final piece of the puzzle to complete the “standard model”, our picture of reality at its most fundamental level. The Higgs became famous, a rare household name among elementary particles.

But now, almost a decade on, we still barely know the Higgs boson – and our understanding of the pantheon of particles and forces that makes the universe what it is remains manifestly imperfect. We were hoping that, alongside the Higgs, new particles and forces …