Lead atoms were not specifically used to find the Higgs particle (also known as the Higgs boson). The discovery of the Higgs boson was made at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator located at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The LHC is a powerful machine that accelerates and collides particles together at very high energies.
The Higgs boson was discovered through experiments conducted at the LHC by colliding protons with each other. Protons are composite particles made up of quarks held together by the strong nuclear force. The lead atoms you mentioned are not directly involved in the Higgs boson discovery, but lead nuclei (consisting of protons and neutrons) are used in other experiments at the LHC.
Lead nuclei are used in certain heavy-ion collision experiments at the LHC. These experiments involve accelerating and colliding lead nuclei with each other at high energies. The purpose of these experiments is to study the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions and investigate phenomena like quark-gluon plasma, which is a state of matter that existed in the early universe shortly after the Big Bang.
While lead atoms or lead nuclei were not used to directly find the Higgs boson, they do play a role in other experiments at the LHC, contributing to our understanding of various aspects of particle physics and the behavior of matter under extreme conditions.