Beyond the Standard Model

What are the origins of mass? What clues will allow us to better understand dark matter? These are some of the questions physicists are trying to answer using data obtained from the LHC.

And, ICTP is providing a platform for such discussions. Experimental and theoretical physicists are meeting this week at an ICTP conference to discuss the latest results obtained from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

The conference, titled 'Beyond the Standard Model: Results with the 7 TeV LHC Collision Data', which opened on 19 September 2011, will give participants a peek into the data collected by the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus) and CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiments.

After the LHC resumed functioning in November 2009, it has been able to achieve the world's highest energy proton-proton collisions at a record-breaking luminosity. The results of these collisions will be presented in the context of going beyond the Standard Model, and this will help future developments in a broader phenomenological context.

"The LHC experiments have yet to uncover physics beyond the standard model," said conference director and ICTP scientist Bobby Acharya. "Through this conference we can focus on sensible ways to move forward."

Acharya leads ICTP's involvement in the ATLAS experiment, which is one of the largest collaborative research activity ever attempted in physics. Some 38 countries are involved, providing 3,000 physicists from more than 174 universities and laboratories.