The ATLAS particle detector of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Nuclear Research Center (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. Built inside an underground tunnel of 27km (17miles) in circumference, CERN’s LHC is the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider and the largest single machine in the world. It can only record a tiny fraction of the data it collects. (CERN / ATLAS Collaboration / Getty Images)

Has The Large Hadron Collider Accidentally Thrown Away The Evidence For New Physics?

The nightmare scenario of no new particles or interactions at the LHC is coming true. And it might be our own fault.

Over at the Large Hadron Collider, protons simultaneously circle clockwise and counterclockwise, smashing into one another while moving at 99.9999991% the speed of light apiece. At two specific points designed to have the greatest numbers of collisions, enormous particle detectors were constructed and installed: the CMS and ATLAS detectors. After billions upon billions of collisions at these enormous energies, the LHC has brought us further in our hunt for the fundamental nature of the Universe and our understanding of the elementary building blocks of matter.

Earlier this month, the LHC celebrated 10 years of operation, with the discovery of the Higgs boson marking its crowning achievement. Yet despite these successes, no new particles, interactions, decays, or fundamental physics has been found. Worst of all is this: most of CERN’s data from the LHC has been discarded forever.