Is modern particle physics going through a crisis?

Upgrades have made it even more powerful, and physicists are eager to explore the properties of the Higgs particle in greater detail. If the upgraded collider does discover supersymmetric particles, it will be an astonishing triumph of modern physics. read more

Predicted about 50 years ago, the Higgs particle is the linchpin of what physicists call the “standard model” of particle physics, a powerful mathematical theory that accounts for all the fundamental entities in the quantum world (quarks and leptons) and all the known forces acting between them (gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces). read more

The mainstream of physics is still condensed matter and optics. There is no crisis there, rather constant and impressive progress. You do a disservice speaking of a “crisis in physics” when you mean something like a “crisis in particle physics” or a “crisis in high energy physics” (both probably still too overbroad). read more

The Higgs boson is proving elusive and physicists now concede that it may not exist - potentially plunging the standard model of particle physics into crisis. The only alternative, known as supersymmetry, is failing its initial experimental tests, though there is room for it to come good yet. read more