Physical Sciences and Engineering
High Energy Physics
HEPResearch in the High Energy Physics division is driven by the goal of understanding the fundamental constituents of matter and energy, and illuminating the ultimate nature of space and time.
In their search for scientific discovery, high energy physicists have built some of the world’s largest, most complex and sophisticated devices, including powerful accelerators, massive particle detectors and sensitive cosmological survey instruments. Theorists in the field have contributed to the deep level of understanding we have of the natural world. Cutting-edge computing has long been associated with high energy physics, from extreme-scale number-crunching with supercomputers to handling enormous amounts of data produced by the experiments. Because of the size and complexity of many projects, which can involve many institutions, the national laboratories have a special role to play in high energy physics.