Physicists are building and operating giant underground detectors, high-energy colliders, and precision muon experiments to find cracks in the Standard Model—the current best theory of how the universe works at its most fundamental level. This matters because the Standard Model, while remarkably successful, cannot explain why the universe is made of matter rather than antimatter, what dark matter is, or why neutrinos have mass. These are gaps in our fundamental understanding of reality. The research tackles them head-on: measuring neutrino properties with enormous detectors to see if they explain matter-antimatter asymmetry, searching for dark matter particles using multiple technologies, and testing the Standard Model's predictions at unprecedented precision. This is primarily curiosity-driven fundamental science with no immediate practical application. However, similar fundamental research in particle physics has historically produced unexpected breakthroughs—the World Wide Web was invented at CERN to share particle physics data, and particle detectors now underpin medical imaging technologies like PET scans. A deeper understanding of neutrinos or dark matter could, over decades, open entirely new domains of physics that might eventually enable technologies we cannot yet imagine.
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Fundamental physics addresses the big questions: what is our Universe made of; how did it evolve; what forces govern it and how do they shape the phenomena we observe? We push the frontiers of technology to design and build particle physics experiments that investigate the smallest constituents of the Universe. We analyse data from our experiments, testing theoretical predictions in new regimes, to further our knowledge and understanding. Our knowledge of how fundamental particles behave is encapsulated in a theory called the Standard Model. It has enormous predictive power and provides a simple framework to understand the nature of the Universe. However, we also know the theory is incomplete and a deeper understanding must underpin it. We perform experiments at the highest energies to test predictions, search for new phenomena and determine the limits of the validity of our theory. Dedicated high-precision experiments, such as those we develop in our precision muon programme, let us probe predictions to incredible levels of accuracy. The faintest trace of any disagreement between theory and experimental data could provide the first hint of new laws of physics operating, which would be a big step forward in understanding the nature of the Universe. We investigate differences in matter and antimatter particle behaviour, to see if these can explain how today’s matter dominated Universe evolved from one with equal amounts of matter and antimatter produced in the Big Bang. Neutrinos, the most elusive of particles, may hold the key to understanding why this happened. They have no charge, barely interact with matter, have a very small mass and to detect them we have to build enormous but very sensitive detectors. An important part of our research is to make detailed measurements of neutrinos, to understand whether they are responsible for our matter-dominated universe. We study dark matter and what it might ultimately be made of. Astronomers have hypothesised the existence of this invisible form of matter by observing its gravitational attraction on nearby stars and galaxies. Its composition and nature remain unknown. We develop powerful experiments using a wide range of approaches and technologies, to perform the broadest search for dark matter constituents. In parallel to our current experiments, we develop the technologies needed to enable the next generation of experiments. Our research and development programme in silicon sensors, liquid argon technology, advanced computing and quantum technologies lays the groundwork for future particle physics endeavours, and will allow us to discover even more about the Universe.
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