The first was the masses of the W and Z bosons – the messengers of the weak nuclear interactions, responsible, for example, for the shining sun. The second was a large set of astrophysical observations, pointing to the necessity of a gravitational “scaffolding” in the universe: that is, the dark matter needed to prevent the stars and galaxies from flying apart.
长期以来，物理学家一直期待LHC揭示与“电弱对称性破缺”和宇宙暗物质有关的新的粒子和场的类别。两个重要的实验发现支持了这一预期。首先是W玻色子和Z玻色子的质量。W玻色子和Z玻色子是弱相互作用的介质，比如阳光照射就是有它们传递的。其次是一大类天文物理学发现，指向宇宙中引力“脚手架”的必要性：即防止星系和银河分崩离析的暗物质。