Background
Recent collider experiments such as the now-dismantled Large Electron-Positron Collider at CERN and the (as of October 2011) recently closed Tevatron at Fermilab have provided remarkable insights into, and precision tests of, the Standard Model of Particle Physics. However, a number of questions remain unanswered.
A principal concern is the lack of any direct evidence for the Higgs boson, the particle resulting from the Higgs mechanism which provides an explanation for the masses of elementary particles. Other questions include uncertainties in the mathematical behaviour of the Standard Model at high energies, the lack of any particle physics explanation for dark matter and the reasons for the imbalance of matter and antimatter observed in the Universe.
The Large Hadron Collider and the associated experiments are designed to address a number of these questions.
Read more about this topic: Compact Muon Solenoid
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