The Experimental Study of Elementary Particle Interactions at High Energy

Physicists at Cambridge are smashing particles together at the Large Hadron Collider to find out why the Universe is made of matter and not antimatter, and what dark matter actually is. This work addresses two of the biggest gaps in fundamental physics. The Standard Model of particle physics cannot explain why matter survived after the Big Bang while antimatter vanished, nor does it account for the invisible dark matter that makes up most of the Universe’s mass. The group will analyse data from the ATLAS and LHCb experiments at CERN, and help upgrade those detectors to run more powerfully. They are also building a role in the future LBNF neutrino experiment in the United States, which will study how neutrinos change type—a process that may hold clues to the matter-antimatter imbalance. This is curiosity-driven fundamental science. There is no immediate practical application. But past particle physics research has given us the World Wide Web, medical imaging technologies such as PET scans, and the superconducting magnets used in MRI machines. A deeper understanding of why the Universe is the way it is could, over decades, lead to technologies no one can yet predict. The group also expects to generate spin-off benefits for local businesses and public engagement with science.