At the energy frontier, scientists smash particles together at the highest possible energies to create and study exotic new particles and phenomena.
SLAC scientists contributed significantly to the world’s most powerful particle collider – the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN on the French/Swiss border. Since joining the collaboration in 2006, SLAC helped commission and operate detectors for the ATLAS experiment and is contributing to the ATLAS science program. SLAC is also involved in R&D for future upgrades to components of the ATLAS detector.
ATLAS and the LHC are intended to explore many of the deepest questions posed by our understanding of particles and forces: How do particles acquire their masses? Do the particles we have observed so far have much heavier, supersymmetric partners, and are these partners the missing dark matter? Do we see evidence for quantum gravity in the form of curled-up spatial dimensions or mini-black holes? The 3,000-strong ATLAS collaboration is poised to address these questions and make other discoveries at the energy frontier over the next decade and beyond.
SLAC is one of a few dozen ATLAS Tier 2 computing centers around the world, and one of only five in the United States, helping distribute and interpret the terabytes of data from the LHC's proton-proton collisions.
Many SLAC theorists are at work modeling the behavior of physics that might – or might not – leave traces in the aftermath of these collisions. Their job is to predict what clues might be hidden in the debris, and thus make it easier to spot traces of fascinating new physics.
SLAC is also involved in research and development for the next-generation electron-positron collider, whose potential for making important discoveries will be shaped by the results coming out of the LHC.
