Astrophysical and cosmological observations tell us that the matter described so well by the Standard Model of particle physics is only 5% of the content of the Universe. Another 25% is the mysterious dark matter, which may be provided by unknown particles, with the remainder being the even more mysterious dark energy that is present even in the “empty” space between the galaxies, driving the expansion of the Universe at an accelerating pace.
Experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and elsewhere are searching for dark matter particles, which may emerge from the theory of supersymmetry that may also help explain why the dark energy is so small.
This lecture will be presented by British theoretical physicist Professor John Ellis CBE FRS, who is currently the Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics at King’s College London. John has worked with CERN for almost 40 years.