About SHiP
The Search for Hidden Particles is an approved fixed-target experiment at CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron. It will search for feebly interacting particles beyond the Standard Model, and study tau neutrinos, using the most intense proton beam the SPS can deliver. This page covers what the project is, how it came about, and where to find its documentation.
What SHiP is for
The Standard Model does not account for dark matter, for the dominance of matter over antimatter, or for neutrino masses. SHiP tests the possibility that the responsible particles have escaped detection not because they are too heavy to produce, but because they interact too weakly to have been seen. Answering that question requires intensity rather than energy, and an apparatus designed around rejecting background rather than around measuring it.
A fuller, non-technical account is on the Discover page; the theoretical models under test are set out under Physics.
How the project developed
- October 2013 — Expression of Interest submitted to the SPS and PS Experiments Committee (SPSC).
- April 2015 — Technical Proposal describing the experiment and its facility.
- 2016–2019 — Comprehensive Design Study of the detector and the Beam Dump Facility.
- 2020 — The update to the European Strategy for Particle Physics does not fund construction of a dedicated Beam Dump Facility.
- 2021–2023 — Alternative sites assessed; ECN3 in the North Area identified as the only suitable location, and the experiment redesigned to fit it.
- 2024 — BDF and SHiP approved by CERN.
- 2033 — Expected start of data taking.
SHiP at CERN
SHiP is one of the experiments overseen by the SPSC. It will occupy ECN3, an existing underground hall in CERN’s North Area, sharing the SPS proton beam with the laboratory’s other fixed-target and collider programmes. The facility that will house it is described under Facility.
Key documents
- Expression of Interest (2013)
- Technical Proposal (2015)
- Comprehensive Design Study reports (2019)
- BDF/ECN3 studies and the 2024 approval documentation
- Recent collaboration publications