Proton collision at the Large Hadron Collider. Artist's impression of a proton-proton collision creating bosons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory. The LHC is the world's most powerful particle collider, used to test predictions in particle physics and high-energy physics. It has four large particle detectors (shown in the model) and three smaller ones (not seen). In July 2012 a proton-proton collision resulted in the creation of a particle consistent with the predicted Higgs boson. The particle was revealed through its decay products; a pair of Z bosons that each decayed into a pair of muons. In the Standard Model, the Higgs boson is used to explain why particles have mass.