Physicists at Cambridge are smashing particles together at near light-speed inside CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, and building atom interferometers that can sense ripples in spacetime, to find out why the Universe is made of matter and not antimatter, and what dark matter actually is. This is fundamental science. The Standard Model of particle physics explains known particles and forces but cannot account for dark matter, the matter–antimatter imbalance, or the nature of gravity at quantum scales. These experiments—ATLAS, LHCb, DUNE, MicroBooNE, AION, and MAGIS—are designed to detect particles or phenomena that break the Standard Model’s rules. If the group finds new particles or interactions, the impact will be primarily conceptual: a rewritten understanding of how the Universe works at its most basic level. Past fundamental particle physics has also produced spin-off technologies—superconducting magnets for MRI, the World Wide Web, and particle detectors used in medical imaging and security scanning. The atom interferometry work (AION, MAGIS) could eventually improve gravitational wave detection and ultra-precise timing, with potential applications in navigation and geophysics. For now, the direct beneficiaries are the 50+ group members, their international collaborators, and the public who engage with the results.
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The Cambridge High Energy Physics Group focuses its research activities on experiments at high-energy accelerators, currently the Large Hadron Collider and the ATLAS and LHCb experiments at CERN, the neutrino experiment MicroBooNE, and the long-baseline neutrino experiment DUNE at Fermilab, and future collider facilities such as the FCC. The goal is to understand the fundamental particles of nature and their interactions, in particular, to discover physics beyond our current understanding, to understand why the Universe is made only of matter and not antimatter and to reveal the identity of dark matter. The Group is also central to the multi-disciplinary Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics projects, AION and MAGIS, which use novel atom interferometry to detect and identify sources of dark matter and gravitational waves in the Universe. This grant will enable the group to fully exploit the physics of the LHC, to deliver our commitments to the current upgrades of the ATLAS and LHCb experiments, to prepare for the future upgrades of ATLAS and LHCb, to consolidate our strong participation in our neutrino programme, to deliver our commitments and exploit the first physics from the AION project and MAGIS experiment, and to undertake generic hardware research and development. The opportunities offered by this exciting physics programme will not only drive the forefront of discovery, but also provide substantial impact to local enterprises and on public engagement. The beneficiaries of this research are the >50 members (academics, post-docs, engineers, technicians and PhD/MPhil students) of the Cambridge High Energy Physics group, all members of the many collaborating institutes in the UK and world-wide, CERN, the world-wide HEP theory community, STFC, our other funders, our collaborators, our undergraduate students, school children, teachers and the general public.
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