Particle Physics - Future

Future

The overarching goal, which is pursued in several distinct ways, is to find and understand what physics may lie beyond the standard model. There are several powerful experimental reasons to expect new physics, including dark matter and neutrino mass. There are also theoretical hints that this new physics should be found at accessible energy scales. Furthermore, there may be surprises that will give us opportunities to learn about nature.

Much of the effort to find this new physics are focused on new collider experiments. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was completed in 2008 to help continue the search for the Higgs boson, supersymmetric particles, and other new physics. An intermediate goal is the construction of the International Linear Collider (ILC), which will complement the LHC by allowing more precise measurements of the properties of newly found particles. In August 2004, a decision for the technology of the ILC was taken but the site has still to be agreed upon.

In addition, there are important non-collider experiments that also attempt to find and understand physics beyond the Standard Model. One important non-collider effort is the determination of the neutrino masses, since these masses may arise from neutrinos mixing with very heavy particles. In addition, cosmological observations provide many useful constraints on the dark matter, although it may be impossible to determine the exact nature of the dark matter without the colliders. Finally, lower bounds on the very long lifetime of the proton put constraints on Grand Unified Theories at energy scales much higher than collider experiments will be able to probe any time soon.

Read more about this topic:  Particle Physics

Famous quotes containing the word future:

    Much that is natural, to the will must yield.
    Men manufacture both machine and soul,
    And use what they imperfectly control
    To dare a future from the taken routes.
    Thom Gunn (b. 1929)

    Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.
    Audre Lorde (1934–1992)

    Where have those flowers and butterflies all gone
    That science may have staked the future on?
    He seems to say the reason why so much
    Should come to nothing must be fairly faced.....
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)