Institute of Advanced Studies

The Quest for the 5th Dimension at the Large Hadron Collider

The world's most powerful microscope, the Large Hadron Collider, at CERN in Switzerland, will soon begin to probe the subnuclear frontier.

At these distances a new theory is required to explain the shortcomings of our current understanding of particle physics.The two leading candidate theories both involve new dimensions of spacetime.These could be in the form of extra space dimensions, such as a 5th dimension, or be new quantum dimensions of spacetime: supersymmetry.

New exotic particles are predicted by these theories that will be actively searched for at the Large Hadron Collider. If discovered, a new dimension would profoundly change our understanding of the Universe.

This lecture discusses the exciting ideas at the forefront of modern high-energy physics. In particular it explores why we think there might be a 5th dimension, and describes how it could be seen with the Large Hadron Collider.

-Tuesday 14 October 2008