Past experiments at CERN and elsewhere (but using lower energies) together with theoretical work linking the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces
led to the «
Standard Model»
of particle physics, formulated in the 1970s.
Dark matter is not necessarily composed
of WIMPs — theorists have identified a host
of other possible dark - matter
particles — but they are the
leading candidates because their presence would close a loophole in the reigning theory
of particle physics, called the
standard model.