Taking physics one-step beyond the Standard Model

New research has revealed previously undiscovered effects in atoms — a potential stepping stone to a new era of physics.

Cross-section of the ATLAS detector at the LHC displaying one of the numerous particle collision events recorded during the search for the Higgs boson. — Atlas Collaboration/CERN

Since the discovery of the Higgs Boson — the particle that gives other particles mass — at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 completed the Standard Model of particle physics, researchers have been on the hunt for physics that lies beyond this model. That is because, whilst the Standard Model offers the best explanation of the fundamental particles and the four fundamental forces that govern them it still can’t explain everything. Mysteries such as dark energy and dark matter do not fall under the watch of the Standard Model, meaning there must be particles and phenomena, as yet, undiscovered.

In a paper published in the journal Physical Review A researchers from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) in collaboration with colleagues from the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and a number of German scientific organizations discuss their findings of previously unexplored effects in atoms.

Just as the Large Hadron Collider was intrinsic to the discovery of the Higgs Boson and thus the completion of the Standard Model, it is expected to play an important role in the discovery physics…