The zeptoverse: what is it and how will it transform physics?

Dark matter makes up a large part of our cosmos, and yet researchers have struggled to detect it.

Scientists know it is there because its gravitational force influences normal matter, but in all other respects it has remained completely invisible.

So in this experiment, particles were smashed together at high energy and scientists studied the material that was thrown out – the shrapnel of collisions.

One of these is a sub-atomic particle – smaller than an atom – called a beauty quark.

The particle is unstable and exists for just one and a half trillionths of a second before breaking down into other forms – decaying.

Despite its short lifetime, researchers managed to detect it interacting with other tiny particles at a scale of a billion-trillionth of a metre.

Some theories suggest that at these scales particles are more sensitive to dark matter and it could influence how the quarks interact and break down. So, detecting activity in this tiny world could help scientists detect dark matter.

“We’re knocking on the door of this zeptoverse,” Dr Harry Cliff, of Cambridge University who led the analysis of the data, told BBC News.

He said this sub-atomic dance provided researchers with a ringside seat to the behaviour of possible new particles.

“And what we want to do now is go in and explore and find what new particles are waiting there. And to do that, what we need is more data,” Cliff added.