SLAC topics

Particle physics RSS feed

Working at the forefront of particle physics, SLAC scientists use powerful particle accelerators to create and study nature’s fundamental building blocks and forces, build sensitive detectors to search for new particles and develop theories that explain and guide experiments. SLAC's particle physicists want to understand our universe – from its smallest constituents to its largest structures.

Related links:
Physics of the universe
Elementary particle physics

Particles collide in this illustration

News Feature

The largest camera ever built for astrophysics has completed the journey to Cerro Pachón in Chile, where it will soon help unlock the Universe’s...

A semi truck traveling a gravel road approaches two large telescope facilities.
News Feature

Machine learning is becoming an essential part of a physicist’s toolkit. How should new students learn to use it?

Illustration: A student scientist embroiders their graduation cap with atom
News Feature

Physics may seem like its own world, but different sectors using machine learning are all part of the same universe. 

Illustration of a scientist cutting a piece of bias tape with scissors
News Feature
VIA Symmetry Magazine

Symmetry: AI for control rooms

Scientists inside and outside of particle physics and astrophysics are leaning on AI for assistance with complex tasks.

Illustration of a scientist pinpointing part of a galaxy through the lens of a magnifying glass
News Feature

Do you know your convolutional neural networks from your boosted decision trees?

Illustration of someone reading a physics vocabulary booklet
News Feature

In the coming weeks, Symmetry will explore the ways scientists are using artificial intelligence to advance particle physics and astrophysics—in a series of articles...

Conceptual illustration of wool being spun into refracted light
News Brief

Researchers have used the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to make the largest 3D map of our universe and world-leading measurements of dark energy, the...

A fan-shaped map shows a lumpy web of galaxies
Press Release

Once set in place atop a telescope in Chile, the 3,200-megapixel LSST Camera will help researchers better understand dark matter, dark energy and other...

Researchers examine the LSST Camera
News Brief

In a new study, SLAC researchers suggest a small-scale solution could be the key to solving a large-scale mystery.

Black spheres travel across a grid of blue spheres.
News Feature

Sensors designed and created at SLAC could help a proposed satellite mission map the X-ray emissions of galaxies with unprecedented precision.

a hexagonal, copper and gold-colored experimental apparatus.
News Feature

An advisory committee recommends the US work to advance three key areas of emerging accelerator technology.

Illustration of three physics-related tarot cards, labeled Proton-Proton, Muon and Plasma-Wakefield
News Feature

SLAC experimentalists and theorists collaborate to develop critical detector components, data analysis tools, and theoretical models for the HL-LHC upgrade, which will investigate the...

Eight pipes arrayed in a circle lead to a central experimental apparatus.