Physicists are building detectors to catch the faint signals of dark matter particles colliding with atomic nuclei, while simultaneously preparing to sift through data from the Large Hadron Collider for the Higgs boson and other exotic particles. These experiments address two fundamental gaps in our understanding of the universe. The Standard Model of particle physics predicts the Higgs boson but has not yet confirmed its existence, and cosmological measurements show that dark matter makes up five times more of the universe's energy density than ordinary matter, yet it has never been directly detected in a laboratory. Without these experiments, we cannot know whether our current theories are complete or where they break down. This is primarily curiosity-driven fundamental science with no immediate practical application. If successful, it would confirm or refute the Standard Model's predictions about the Higgs boson and reveal the nature of dark matter—a substance that shapes the large-scale structure of the cosmos. As with past fundamental discoveries in particle physics, from quantum mechanics to the World Wide Web, a deeper understanding of matter's basic constituents could eventually lead to unforeseen technologies, though that is not the goal of this work.
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Experimental particle physics addresses some of the fundamental questions about the structure and behaviour of the Universe at the level of the smallest particles of matter, the quarks and the leptons, and the forces acting between them. We are exploring fundamental properties of particles at the the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and also exploring the nature of dark matter by developing and employing novel detection systems. We are contributing to the preparation of the ATLAS project at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN that will begin taking data in 2009. We have constructed and commissioned electronic systems and the software that drives them. From 2009 onwards we will be analysing the data as it becomes available. In particular we will be searching the data for evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson, one of the key missing elements of the Standard Model of particle physics at present, and for supersymmetric particles and other exotic phenomena, that are expected to exist. We are also planning to understand better the properties of the top quark and the structure of the proton. Beneficiaries. Cosmological measurements determine that dark matter makes up five times more of the energy density of the universe than the particles we know of. Although the existence of dark matter is inferred from its gravitational interactions, it has not yet been directly detected in terrestrial laboratories. Direct detection experiments seek to observe dark matter scattering on target detector nuclei. To explore these fundamental issues, we have set up a new dark matter group to participate in a world-leading dark matter search on DEAP/CLEAN, a liquid Argon detector with unique potential for scaling to multi-tonne masses, and with the DMTPC detector development program to measure the dark matter wind, which can correlate a dark matter-induced recoil signal with the earth's motion through the galactic dark matter halo, distinct from relatively isotropic terrestrial backgrounds.
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