HIGGS, In Search of the Anti-Motti

Gianni Motti

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland is a place of extremes; not only is it the world's largest particle accelerator but also the largest machine ever built. At 27 kilometers in length, the circular tunnel is roughly the size of the Central Line on the London Underground, and enables scientists to recreate the conditions when our Universe was first formed 13.8 billion years ago. During his residency at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) where the LHC is based, Motti embarked on a existential journey, comparing himself to one of the particles whizzing around the LHC, and walked the entirety of the tunnel. It took the artist nearly 6 hours - a huge difference from the protons which travel the route 11,000 times in one second. After his journey, Motti suggested that “maybe one day, the scientists at CERN will discover mysterious traces of anti-Motti”.