CERN Has Launched Search for Dark Matter and Energy
Researchers at the upgraded High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider aim to map the 95 percent of the universe that remains unknown.
Updated on Oct. 11, 2026 in Physics
Live Poll
Should the government prioritize funding for large-scale scientific research projects?
Scientists at CERN have initiated a research project to identify Dark Matter and Dark Energy using the upgraded High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. This research phase follows the facility's move to increase collision capacity by 10 times compared to its prior performance.
Why it matters
Understanding these phenomena is the primary goal for physics, as they account for approximately 95 percent of the universe. This upgrade now allows researchers to collect in one year the volume of data that previously required a decade to accumulate.
The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider increases collision rates by 10 times compared to previous performance within the 27-kilometer tunnel on the Swiss-French border. This throughput expansion is designed to accelerate the study of particles and universal structures.
The players
CERN
An international research organization operating the world's largest particle physics laboratory.
Peter Higgs
A theoretical physicist who received the 2013 Nobel Prize for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson.
Francois Englert
A theoretical physicist who shared the 2013 Nobel Prize for the mechanism explaining why particles have mass.
The details
The Large Hadron Collider is an accelerator using a 27-kilometer circular tunnel to smash particles together. By increasing the luminosity, or the number of potential collisions, scientists can probe deeper into exotic composite particles made from heavier quarks—tiny, fundamental constituents of matter. These data help researchers infer the presence of Dark Matter by observing how its gravity affects the structure of galaxies.
Timeline
2012: Discovery of the Higgs boson.
2013: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert.
October 2026: Publication of research on ongoing Dark Matter studies.
The Tech Race
This research project marks a major experimental escalation following the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson. It represents a pivot from confirming the Standard Model toward characterizing the 95 percent of the universe that remains unexplained.
This research is currently in the data collection phase, meaning its effects are confined to the high-energy physics community and academic research networks. There is no immediate application for the public until data analysis confirms the nature of these dark entities.
The takeaway
The upgrade is expected to drastically increase data availability, potentially condensing a decade of work into a single year. Watch for reports following the October 2026 milestone to see if the increased collision rate yields evidence of exotic quarks or non-baryonic matter.
Further reading
For more on the facility's latest experimental capabilities, visit Physics.
Source note: This article includes information reported by NDTV.
Live Poll
Should the government prioritize funding for large-scale scientific research projects?
