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April 6, 2015

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鈥楤ig Bang鈥 collider restarts to search for dark matter

Scientists at Europe鈥檚 particle physics research center CERN yesterday restarted their 鈥淏ig Bang鈥 Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in a new bid to resolve mysteries of the universe and look for 鈥渄ark matter.鈥

The machine had been shut for two years for a refit. Hopes for the second run lie in breaking out of what is known as the Standard Model of how the universe works at the level of elementary particles, and into 鈥淣ew Physics.鈥

That includes searching for dark matter that makes up 96 percent of the stuff of the universe but can only be detected by its influence on visible matter like galaxies and planets.

Scientists are preparing for particle-smashing collisions expected to start in June, though any new discoveries made are unlikely to emerge until mid-2016.

The overhaul included new magnets, higher energy beams and voltages and a complete check of all wiring around the underground 27 kilometer LHC tunnel and its four major detectors and multiple magnets.

鈥淚t鈥檚 fantastic to see it going so well after two years and such a major overhaul,鈥 CERN director general Rolf Heuer said on the research organization鈥檚 live blog for the restart.

In the last run, from 2010 to 2013, physicists tracked down the legendary Higgs boson particle after years of searching in the debris from particle collisions at CERN and smaller colliders.

In two months, CERN will start smashing particles into each other in the LHC with nearly twice the energy compared with the first run, and as before at close to the speed of light.


 

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