Ten years ago, scientists were able to discover the Higgs boson and help understand the universe using the Large Hadron Collider. They did so again in 2018, unlocking new insights into protons.
Now, with a new set of questions, they plan to restart the particle accelerator perhaps this month to better understand cosmic unknowns like dark matter.
"It's a particle that has answered some questions for us and given us many others," Dr. Sarah Demers, a professor of physics at Yale University, told NPR.
The Higgs boson was first observed when scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, spin and shred particles close to the speed of light. To do this, they used the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.
Physicists have assumed the existence of this particle since 1964, but it took nearly 50 years to find evidence.
Scientists believe that the Higgs field formed a tenth of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang, without which stars, planets and life would not have appeared.
Proving the existence of the Higgs boson was a milestone in fundamental physics, and Dr. François Englert and Dr. Peter Higgs won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Despite scientific achievements, the work to understand how the universe works is far from over.
The collider completed a second series of tests in 2018 that yielded new insights into the structures of protons and the decay of the Higgs boson.
After more than three years of maintenance and updates, the collider will be restarted on Tuesday, this time tripling the data, keeping the beams intense for longer and allowing for more studies overall.
"There has to be more because we can't explain a lot of things," said Demers, who also works at CERN in the third round. "Something is really missing, and most importantly we're talking about 96% of the universe is really big."
Demers refers to dark matter, an invisible substance believed to exist based on observations of the universe, and dark energy, which fuels the accelerating expansion of the universe. She hopes that the upcoming race will provide insight into the elusive but overwhelming part of our universe.
In a press release, CERN wrote: "Finding answers to these and other intriguing questions will not only improve our understanding of the universe on the smallest scale, but may also help unlock some of the larger mysteries of the universe as a whole." , like how it happened and what it is. "Your final destination".
The third cycle is expected to continue over the next four years, and scientists have already begun work on the fourth, which is expected to begin in 2030.
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