In particle physics, the electroweak scale, also known as the Fermi scale, is the energy scale around 246 GeV, a typical energy of processes described by the electroweak theory. The particular number 246 GeV is taken to be the vacuum expectation value v = ( G F 2 ) − − 1 / 2 of the Higgs field (where G F is the Fermi coupling constant). In some cases the term electroweak scale is used to refer to the temperature of electroweak symmetry breaking, 159.5±1.5 GeV . In other cases, the term is used more loosely to refer to energies in a broad range around 10 - 10 GeV. This is within reach of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is designed for about 10 GeV in proton–proton collisions.