85% of the stuff in the universe is not matter. It’s stuff called “dark matter”.
but, we know it’s out there. because you can see it affecting other things, with gravity.
(in this case, galaxies.)but there is a theory that maybe just maybe, we can make our own dark matter, in the LHC or Large Hadron collider. in the LHC, two proton beams move in opposite directions and accelerated to near the speed of light. at 4 collision points, the beams cross, and the protons smash into each other. protons are made up of quarks and gluons.
in most collisions, the protons pass through each other. but, once in a million collisions., they smack into each other so hard, they produce a lot of new and exciting particles. the problem is that maybe this particle is unstable, and decays before reaching the detector.
for example, the Higgs boson.
the Higgs boson particle
the Higgs boson is a theoretical particle that wasn’t seen until 2012. the odds of producing a Higgs particle is about 1 in 10 million, and it lasts for only a fraction of a second until decaying. but! scientists developed models to tell them what to look for.for the Higgs, they thought that it would decay into two photons.but! there are a lot, and I mean a LOT of things that make two photons. but! the scientists came up with a solution. the answer is… mass.
the information gathered by the detectors allowed the scientists to take a step back and determine the mass of whatever it was that produced two photons. then, they put it on a graph.
if there is a big bump in the graph… well, then, It’s most likely a Higgs boson!
back to dark matter
so, back to dark matter.if the LHC’s proton beams have enough energy to produce it, it’s most likely an even rarer occurrence than the Higgs boson. so, maybe like… 1 in a quadrillion? 1in 1,000,000,000,000,000! wow! that is more than 1 in a…wait, what was the chance of a Higgs boson again…? anyway, trying to create dark matter will take a lot of tries, combined with a lot of computer simulations/models to even start to look. that is how to find dark matter! that is really cool! anyway, that is what the LHC is currently doing! what?! yep, we may find dark matter soon!
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