Science & Technology

Hadron Collider set to make major discoveries

By T.K. Randall
February 16, 2015

Image: CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Tunnel
Credit: Julian Herzog / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) Hot on the heels of the Higgs Boson, scientists at Cern are confident that the world's largest and most powerful atom smasher will make a discovery of even greater importance when it resumes operations within the next few months.

Having undergone upgrades enabling it to work at even higher energies than ever before, the particle accelerator could help physicists discover the first ever supersymmetrical particle and it could do it before the end of the year."Summer may be a bit hard but late summer maybe, if we're really lucky," said Professor Beate Heinemann. "This would rock the world... For me, it's more exciting than the Higgs."

The discovery of supersymmetry would open the door to a whole new world of previously unknown sub-atomic particles, many of which could help account for dark matter, the mysterious substance thought to make up a large percentage of all the matter in the universe.

Source: Independent

Tags: Large Hadron Collider