The past decade has been tough for particle physics. In 2012, the long-expected discovery of the Higgs boson confirmed that the standard model of particle physics, our best theory of the fundamental ingredients of reality, was correct. Still, it was obvious that this beautiful picture of reality was incomplete. It touches only vaguely on gravity and is silent on dark matter, the unidentified stuff that we believe makes up most of the universe.
In other words, there must be something beyond the standard model, and we have looked exceedingly hard for it. The fact that we have found zilch has prompted mutterings about whether particle physics has hit a dead end.
Some physicists reckon we simply need to look harder. One proposal is to replace the Large Hadron Collider, the machine that discovered the Higgs boson, with a more powerful successor called the Future Circular Collider. Maybe searching the debris from more energetic collisions will reveal the missing pieces of reality?
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Now, however, an exciting result suggests this strategy is too simplistic. Researchers at the LUX-ZEPLIN detector in South Dakota have picked up a signal that might prove to have come from dark matter. Crucially, the signal seems to have derived from a much more complex interaction between the dark matter particle and the detector than had previously been envisaged.
Building ever-larger particle smashers may not be the best way to make progress
All this suggests that building ever-larger particle smashers may not be the best way to make progress in physics. Instead, we might be able to make fresh discoveries by thinking more creatively about how nature could work and looking for the resulting signals using existing experiments. As we report this week, physicists are already exploring these avenues. One idea is to harness quantum computers to scan the fallout from particle collisions. Another involves scrutinising our assumptions about the nature of empty space itself.
So particle physics isn’t dead. It might just be that the make-up of reality is a tad more sophisticated than we thought.
