Particle Fever

The film is composed of two narrative threads. One follows the large team of experimental physicists at CERN as they try to get the LHC running properly. After a promising initial test run, the LHC suffers a liquid helium leak in 2007 that damages its electromagnets. Fabiola Gianotti, Martin Aleksa, and Monica Dunford are all shown discussing how to handle the negative publicity surrounding the accident, and how to proceed. After repairs in 2009, the LHC begins to run experiments again at half power. The other thread follows the competing theories of Nima Arkani-Hamed and his mentor Savas Dimopoulos. In the film, Arkani-Hamed advocates for the "multiverse" theory, which predicts the mass of the Higgs boson to be approximately 140 giga-electronvolts. Dimopoulos argues for the more-established supersymmetry theory, which predicts the mass of the Higgs boson to be approximately 115 GeV. The narrative threads combine at the end of the film, when CERN announces the confirmed existence of a Higgs-like particle, with a mass of approximately 125 GeV. The discovery of the particle is met with a standing ovation, and Peter Higgs is shown wiping away tears. However, neither of the competing theories of the universe is definitively supported by the finding. Later, Kaplan is shown admitting that none of his theoretical models are supported by this finding, and that the long-term implications of the discovery are unclear. ==Production==

The film was shot over a period of seven years. It was directed by Mark Levinson, a former theoretical physicist with a doctorate from UC-Berkeley. Levinson produced the film along with David Kaplan, a professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University and producers Andrea Miller, Carla Solomon and Wendy Sax. This footage was then edited by Walter Murch, who had previously won Academy Awards for his work on Apocalypse Now and The English Patient. Kaplan worked closely with MK12 to create the animated sequences which are used throughout the film. The film premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest on July 14, 2013. ==Release==

Particle Fever was shown at several festivals before opening in limited release in the United States on March 5, 2014. Critical response The film received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the film for making theoretical arguments seem comprehensible, for making scientific experiments seem thrilling, for making particle physicists seem human, and for promoting physics outreach. Several reviewers singled out Murch's editing for praise. On his blog, theoretical physicist and string theory critic Peter Woit called the film "fantastically good", but cautioned that Arkani-Hamed's linking of the Higgs boson to multiverse theory was a tenuous proposition, as this theory did not currently make testable predictions. On Metacritic, the film has an 87 out of 100 rating, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". == Awards ==

In 2016, it was one of the inaugural winners of the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication. ==Related media==

On July 27, 2024, at San Diego Comic-Con, composer Bear McCreary announced that he is working on a musical theater version of the documentary film, called Particle Fever: The Musical. He also announced that he's working with composer/lyricist Zoe Sarnak, playwrighter David Henry Hwang, and art director Leigh Silverman. ==References==