Physicists believe a new experiment could prove their existence and answer fundamental questions...
VICTOR de SCHWANBERG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY. Artwork: Ghost particles can't currently be detected.
Some physicists have long suspected that mysterious 'ghost' particles in the world around us could greatly advance our understanding of the true nature of the Universe.
The theory is that the ghost particles can disintegrate into Standard Model particles, and these can be picked up by detectors.
Instead of colliding particles together, which most current experiments do, the Search for Hidden Particles will crash them into a big block of material.
The hunt for ghost particles requires specially adapted equipment.
The ghost particles can remain invisible and travel several tens or even hundreds of meters before they disintegrate and reveal themselves.
The Future Circular Collider has an estimated initial cost of £12bn. Its planned start date is sometime in the mid-2040s, though it won't be at its full new particle-hunting potential until 2070.By contrast, the SHiP experiment is scheduled to start looking for new particles in 2030 and will be around a hundred times cheaper at around £100m. But researchers say that all approaches are needed to explore all the possible options in order to find the particles that they say would lead to one of the biggest breakthroughs in physics of all time.
Galaxy's ghost particles captured in Antarctic ice.
An extraordinary image of ghost particles in the Milky Way is captured by an observatory buried at the South Pole.
Cern physicist Dr Andre David describes the moment scientists found the 'God particle'.