Institute for Particle Physics
Searching for the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions
Particle Physics explores the most fundamental laws of Nature: what are the basic constituents of matter and how do they interact? At the Institute for Particle Physics we address these questions with experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and other international laboratories. Past experiments have established the validity of a theoretical framework for the fundamental particles and their interactions (Standard Model of Elementary Particles). At the same time, the theoretical picture is incomplete and fundamental questions remain unanswered. New insights are expected through the study of the highest energy collisions in the Teravolt scale, soon available at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The Institute is also leading international efforts to understand neutrino properties, to solve the puzzle of the missing matter in the Universe, and to study high-energy cosmic rays. In parallel, research and development of new detectors and their application to other fields are vigorously pursued.
More on the web page of the Institute for Particle Physics
