How the Large Hadron Collider Will Hunt for Dark Matter
It's the world's largest particle accelerator — and after a three-year pause for upgrades, CERN's Large Hadron Collider now detects more data, runs at higher speeds, and performs at its highest energy level ever — a whopping 13.6 trillion electron volts. Will that prove the existence of dark matter? The Washington Post reports: Though scientists largely believe dark matter is real, none have been able to see or create it. Data collection and power upgrades made to the particle smasher could provide researchers one of their best chances to visualize and understand the substance.... Inside the collider, superconducting magnets are chilled to roughly minues-456 degrees Fahrenheit — colder than space — while two particle beams traveling close to the speed of light are made to collide. Using advanced sensors and monitors, scientists analyze the substances created by those collisions, which replicate conditions similar to the Big Bang. It allows them to learn about the earliest moments of the universe... During the Large Hadron Collider's four-year experiment, scientists are hoping to find evidence of dark matter. As they fire up the machine, protons will spin at nearly the speed of light. The hope, researchers said, is that when they collide, it creates new particles resembling the properties of dark matter.... "High-energy colliders remain the most powerful microscope at our disposal to explore nature at the smallest scales and to discover the fundamental laws that govern the universe," said Gian Giudice, head of CERN's theory department.... If CERN scientists do not discover dark matter in the next four years, they have more upgrades in the works. The upgrades are likely to take three years after the current run stops, leaving the fourth round of data collection and experiments to start in 2029. As planned, the trial could capture 10 times more data than previous experiments, according to CERN's website.
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