[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6493\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u2018Good chance\u2019 of success in dark matter hunt\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter successfully finding the Higgs boson \u2013 dubbed the God Particle by the media for its role in filling an important hole in the so-called Standard Model of particle physics \u2013 in 2012, the LHC has turned its attention to the hunt for dark matter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYet, so far, the 27-kilometre particle accelerator that straddles the frontier between France and Switzerland just north of Geneva has drawn a blank.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe chances are that it is just a matter of narrowing down the probabilities, according to Professor Paraskevas Sphicas, a senior researcher at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which operates the LHC.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The more we run, the smaller the probability of interaction between dark matter and standard particles that we can probe,\u2019 said Prof. Sphicas, likening it to holding a lottery ticket.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If the number of lottery tickets that we have sold is extremely large, say 10 billion, if you are going to hope that we can get anything, you\u2019d need to wait until we have something around 10 billion draws, 10 billion interactions,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018If your probability of occurence is smaller than 10 billion, say a trillion, you\u2019ll have to wait until we accumulate close to or a bit more than a trillion lottery draws.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn fact, the LHC is expected to continue producing data for the next 20 years, much of that at 10 times current beam-intensity levels following an upgrade that is expected to be operational in 2025.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Essentially the LHC will cover a big chunk of this possibility space,\u2019 explained Prof. Sphicas. \u2018One can certainly not speak with certainty, (though) I think we have a pretty good chance of getting some signal out.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe is part of the AMVA4NewPhysics project, which is using funding from the EU\u2019s Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie actions to train PhD students in using advanced multi-variate analysis, a new machine learning technology which can be used to interpret the vast amounts of data thrown up by the collisions at the LHC.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018This enables one to invest a significant amount of time, three years, in seeing how effective the latest, greatest in advanced multi-variate techniques can help in the analysis of LHC data,\u2019 said Prof. Sphicas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s significant because data analysis represents the real heavy lifting in the search for dark matter, sifting through all of the recorded collisions to search for evidence for a possible dark matter particle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EVisible mass\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPhysicists have deduced the existence of dark matter by looking at the discrepancy between the visible mass of galaxies, and calculations of mass based on the motion of galaxies, taking into account the effects of gravity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe problem is that the force of gravity is so tiny that it is impossible to detect at the level of a single particle, meaning that it can\u2019t be used as a way to find dark matter. The work at the LHC is to see other ways in which dark matter might react.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It would be very strange if we have something that interacts only gravitationally,\u2019 said Prof. Sphicas. \u2018It\u2019s got to have some other property, it has to have some connection to the rest of the universe.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt means the door is still wide open to the possibilities of dark matter, and it could be that physicists are looking in completely the wrong place.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018It\u2019s got to have some other property, it has to have some connection to the rest of the universe.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProf. Paraskevas Sphicas, senior researcher, CERN\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENothing is confirmed yet, but there have already been some anomalies that deviate from the Standard Model at one of the experiments being carried out at the LHC, known as LHCb, which is looking at the differences between matter and antimatter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It could be known physics, producing some effect we did not predict precisely enough, or it could be new physics,\u0026nbsp;or just a statistical fluctuation,\u2019 explained Dr Adri\u00e1n\u0026nbsp;Carmona, a theoretical physicist from the south of Spain\u0026nbsp;who has received funding from the EU\u2019s Marie Sk\u0142odowska-Curie actions to work at CERN as part of the NP4theLHC14 project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018But, if we discover that it is due to new physics, it would be very exciting and it might also tell us something about dark matter,\u2019 said Dr Carmona.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe is trying to understand these deviations as part of his role as a model builder \u2013 one of the physicists who must come up with new models and make predictions that the experimental teams at CERN test.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It could be that this is also the door to a new theory explaining also why we have so little visible matter in the universe,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, there\u2019s always the possibility that these efforts will be in vain and the LHC will never find the dark matter particle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Personally, I don\u2019t believe that the LHC experiment will find a particle (that is) dark matter, I think the answer lies somewhere else,\u2019 said Dr Tommaso Dorigo, a multi-variate analysis specialist at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy who is the coordinator of the AMVA4NewPhysics project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Yet, we must continue to search. Only when we have completed the possible parameter space where this particle may reside will we be able to say, \u201cIt is not a particle, dark matter must be constituted by something else, maybe black holes or who knows what.\u201d\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-38xi192gi55vv6kef1ipdbxu-dfkn9d8wnjjmawpo6u\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-38xi192gi55VV6kef1IPDBXU-dfkN9D8wNjJMaWpo6U\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]