CERN's Large Hadron Collider will open new vistas on the deepest secrets of the universe, stretching the imagination with newly discovered forms of matter, forces of nature and dimensions of space.

The Standard Model is the current framework for our understanding of matter. LHC and its experiments are designed to address fundamental questions not explained by the Standard Model.

Basic research is a journey, not an event. Following along as physicists close in on new physics requires knowledge of LHC physics, accelerator and detector design, and how data inform claims and reasoning.

What is dark matter? What happened to antimatter? Is Higgs the mechanism responsible for mass? Are there extra dimensions of spacetime? These resources provide background information for the next discoveries.

The Standard Model is the current framework for our understanding of matter.

• The Particle Adventure - The Standard Model - an interactive tour (from CPEP)
• Quark Workbench - Using rules that describe the structure of mesons and baryons
• Quark Applet - Quark combinations that show resulting particles
• Fermilabyrinth - Law 'n Order - Online games (Fermilab's Lederman Science Center exhibits)

• The Standard Model - Short description (from the SLAC Virtual Visitor Center)
• The Standard Model - The Standard Model and more (from CERN)
• What is the world made of? - Introduction for Inquiring Minds (from Fermilab)
• The Standard Model of Particle Physics - A bit of history about organizing particles by characteristics (CERN video)
• In Search of Giants - Brian Cox explains the standard model and important discoveries leading to it in this video from SciTechUK.

The Standard Model explains much but leaves many unanswered questions.

• Higgs Reception - Classroom simulation of the Higgs cartoon
• Run II Website - Run II data analysis of W and Z as precursor to the search for Higgs

• Higgs Cartoon - Cartoon analogy explaining the Higgs mechanism as a cocktail party (D. Miller and CERN)
• Search for Higgs News Stories - CERN Courier and Fermilab Today articles from 1999 to 2012
• Time Machine - Completing the journey back to the beginning of time (CERN video, 1998)
• A subatomic venture - LHC physics, questions the LHC will address (from CERN)
• LHC Physics - Questions the LHC will address (from US/LHC)
• LHC Big Questions - PPT (from LHC fellows)
• In Search of Giants - Brian Cox explains the Higgs and other ideas in this video from SciTechUK.
• Twenty-First Century Questions - from the International Committee for Future Accelerators' Beacons of Discovery
• The Higgs Boson: Is the End in Sight? - from the Physics Teacher

Physicists built the LHC and its detectors to address some of these unanswered questions.

• Making It Round the Bend - Exploration of the basic physics at the heart of accelerator design
• CERN Control Room Game - Different workshop simulations preparing parts of the accelerator
• Fermilabyrinth - Warp Speed - Online games (Fermilab's Lederman Science Center exhibits)

• Make a Cloud Chamber - One of many sites for building a cloud chamber (Student Video of a cloud chamber (requires Windows Media Player.))
• Mass Calorimeter - Determining an unknown mass by building and calibrating a simple tabletop calorimeter.
• Animation of CMS Wedge - Tracing particle paths through CMS (adapted by L. Quigg from CMS animation).
• Fermilabyrinth - Ghost Bustin' - Online games (Fermilab's Lederman Science Center exhibits)

• CERN - Building the LHC (NOVA scienceNOW, July 2007)
• LHC Rap, 2008
• US/LHC for Teachers and Students - Portal to all things LHC (from the U.S. community)
• Overview of the LHC - PPT (from LHC fellows)
• ATLAS built in 1, 3 or 5 minutes - Video compiled from ATLAS webcam footage and still photos
• History of Particle Detectors - PPT (from LHC fellows)
• ATLAS Detector - PPT (from LHC fellows)
• CMS Detector - PPT (from LHC fellows)
• In Search of Giants - Brian Cox introduces the LHC in this video from SciTechUK.

Particle physics research relies on indirect evidence to support claims.

Scientists check for statistical uncertainties and systematic uncertainties and whether other experiments are able to verify new discoveries.

• Top Quark Mass - Investigation using vector addition to calculate the mass of the top quark
• Rolling with Rutherford - Practice with indirect measurements
• U.S. Penny Activity - Graphing penny mass as a way to understand particle mass plots
• Online CMS Event Display - Exploration of CMS events (used in CMS e-Lab and masterclass, from I2U2)
• CMS e-Lab - Investigations with CMS data (from I2U2)
  
• CMS Masterclass; Teacher Pages - Exercises with CMS data (from QuarkNet)
• Mass Calc: Z - Exercise with CMS Data (from QuarkNet)
• ATLAS Masterclass - Exercises with ATLAS data (from IPPOG)
• HYPATIA - Studying particles through the inspection of the graphical display of ATLAS events (from University of Athens & Institute of Physics Belgrade)
• Fermilabyrinth - Code Crackin' - Online games (Fermilab's Lederman Science Center exhibits)
• Sigma Lifetime Exercise - Advanced problem set using bubble chamber data

• Higgs Media Highlights - from Fermilab
• Higgs Boson: How you search for it and Latest Update - YouTube, Dec. 13, 2011
• New Discoveries - PPT (from Mike Strauss, University of Oklahoma)
• What We Do Is Not in the Textbooks - Meeting ATLAS physicists (ATLAS YouTube video 2009)
• Particle Hunters - Meeting CMS physicists (CERN video, 2004)

Track the "journey" as physicists approach new physics.

• Higgs - Is Higgs the mechanism responsible for mass?
• Supersymmetry (SUSY) Are particles paired with superparticles?
• Dark Matter - What is dark matter?
• Compositeness - Are there smaller structures hidden within quarks, leptons and force carriers?
• Fourth Generation Particles - Did nature stop at three generations of quarks and leptons?
• Extra Dimensions Does our universe contain extra dimensions?
• Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry - What happened to the antimatter?
• W' and Z' - Are there more massive versions of W and Z?