Premomoy Ghosh (in red shirt, standing), a senior scientist at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, and other Indian researchers in the Alice Control Room, at CERN, on Wednesday

Subhashish Chattopadhyay and M.R. Dutta Mazumdar spent an anxious Wednesday morning as the efforts by more than 20 city scientists over the past 14 years were put to test in Geneva.

Sitting in their cubicles at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), the duo and other researchers were waiting for the reports of the first run of an experiment, which kicked off a fresh search for an elusive piece of a physics puzzle that kept scientists busy for decades.

At 12.30pm (IST), when the first proton beam was circulated along the 27-km tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the scientific officers in the Salt Lake institute gathered in the computer hall to watch the webcast of the process from CERN, in Geneva.

“I kept my fingers crossed as the experiment had been postponed twice. I am very happy that everything went off well on the first day,” said a beaming Chattopadhyay.

He is waiting with bated breath for the eventual collision of two proton beams, scheduled for October 21.

The primary aim of what is being billed as the world’s largest experiment — the LHC took 10 years and $8 billion to build — is to produce the elusive Higgs Bosons, which scientists believe lend mass to fundamental particles.

Scientists hope the collision of the proton beams will create a “mini bang”, mimicking conditions that existed a “microsecond” after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.

If Higgs Bosons are found, the present theory of particle physics will be proved correct. If not, physicists will have to develop another theory.

The VECC, a unit of the department of atomic energy, has contributed to the development of the Photon Multiplicity Detector, which will help track, count and study some of the subatomic particles the collision with create.

The Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, too, has played a key role in the experiment by designing and fabricating a chip called Manas, which is being used in the project.

“It’s a momentous occasion not just in the history of physics but also for India and especially Calcutta. This is the first time that India has played such a significant role in an international experiment of this stature,” said Bikash Sinha, the director of the institute as well as of the VECC.

There was a sense of jubilation among the scientists and students at both institutes, as the experiment started successfully at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, popularly known by its French acronym CERN.

Premomoy Ghosh and Siddharth Prasad, of the VECC, and Subhendu Bose, of the Saha Institute, were present at CERN as part of the team supervising the experiment.

While the scientific community cheered, Jayanta Sthanapati, the director of the Birla Institute of Technological Museum, was busy fielding anxious queries. “The misconception about the world coming to an end because of the proton collision needs to be dispelled. Some of my colleagues asked me whether they would be alive by the end of the day,” said Sthanapati.

The institute will invite experts from the Saha Institute, Jadavpur University, Calcutta University and IIT Kharagpur to speak on the subject.

Debiprosad Duari, the director (research and academics) of MP Birla Planetarium, has been flooded with frenzied calls and emails from people from all walks of life.