The "Breakthrough Prize," an international science award established by the founders of Google and other technology companies, announced this year's recipients on April 5, 2025. An international team including researchers from Nagoya University, who investigated the properties of subatomic particles using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), was selected for the Fundamental Physics category.
The award recognizes leading scientists around the world who have made significant advances in our understanding of fundamental science.
The international team was commended for advancing the frontiers of fundamental physics through "detailed measurements of Higgs boson properties confirming the symmetry-breaking mechanism of mass generation, the discovery of new strongly interacting particles, the study of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the exploration of nature at the shortest distances and most extreme conditions at CERN's Large Hadron Collider."
From Nagoya University, around ten researchers from the Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe and the Graduate School of Science have consistently contributed to the ATLAS experiment, one of the four LHC experiments to earn the award (along with CMS, ALICE, and LHCb). Their responsibilities include constructing and operating the ATLAS Muon Trigger system, which detects muons (a type of subatomic particle) at high speed, and analyzing Higgs boson data. They also play a leading role in upgrading the Muon Trigger system for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), a major upgrade to the LHC scheduled to begin operation in 2030.
Recipients from Nagoya University
- Yasuyuki Horii, Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe / Associate Professor, Graduate School of Science
- Haruka Asada, Graduate Student, Graduate School of Science
Associate Professor Yasuyuki Horii, who leads the members from Nagoya University.
Detector of the Muon Trigger system (Image courtesy of CERN).
Candidate Higgs boson event captured by the Muon Trigger system (Image courtesy of CERN).
Related Links:
- Breakthrough Prize announcement
- ATLAS Experiment
- ATLAS Experiment press release
- ATLAS Japan (in Japanese)
- Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe, Nagoya University
- High Energy Physics laboratory, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University
This article was originally published in Japanese and has been translated and edited for clarity and readability by the Nagoya University International Communications Office while preserving the original content's intent. The original Japanese version is available here.