It was tipped to be a potentially groundbreaking discovery of a new particle, which could have led to the re-writing of phsyics as we know it.

But eight months after scientists hinted at the possibility of findings “more exciting than the discovery of the Higgs [Boson] itself" from the Large Hadron Collider, the latest data has shown it to be nothing more than a statistical blip.

“Basically we see nothing,” said Tiziano Camporesi, a chief scientific spokesman at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (Cern), where the huge atom-smashing machine is located.

In December, early unconfirmed readings of an unusually high number of gamma rays during a collision were identified as possibly being produced by the decay of a new particle.

But additional research in the following months showed the data to be a random “statistical fluke,” said Dave Charlton, another Cern spokesman.

Studying similar types of rays eventually led to the tentative confirmation of the existence of the Higgs Boson particle, dubbed the “God particle”, in 2013.

Revamped Large Hadron Collider on course to smash physics records

In May, theoretical physicist Csaba Csaki, who isn't involved in the experiments, said: “If this is really true, then it would possibly be the most exciting thing that I have seen in particle physics in my career — more exciting than the discovery of the Higgs itself.”

However, while the new data ruled out any particle existing at the energy level the scientists had been looking at, disappointment may be the most serious outcome of the findings.

“It's a shame there wasn't a particle there, but there aren't any big ideas that would rise or fall on it being there,“ said Sean Carroll, a California Institute of Technology physicist.

Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider Show all 10 1 /10 Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider A scientist views the first collision pictures at Cern yesterday, where sub-atomic particles were smashed together at three times the previous energy record EPA Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider Two beams of protons began 10 days ago to speed at high energy in opposite directions around the 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel under the Swiss-French border at Geneva. Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider Emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, British Peter Higgs is seen inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel. Higgs is best known for his theory explaining the origin of mass of elementary particles in general and the Higgs Boson in particular. It is anticipated that the LHC will determine the existence of the Higgs Boson. Getty Images Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider A model of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel is seen in the CERN (European Organization For Nuclear Research) visitors' centerin Geneva-Meyrin, Switzerland. CERN is building the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. The LHC is installed in a tunnel buried 50 - 150 m below ground. Getty Images Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider A woman passes behind a layers of the world's largest superconducting solenoid magnet (CMS), one of the experiments preparing to take data at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particule accelerator. Getty Images Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider A European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientist checks a monitor at the Alice experiment control room Getty Images Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider An engineer pointing to the magnet core of the world's largest superconducting solenoid magnet (CMS, Compact Muon Solenoid). Getty Images Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider Belgium's King Albert II (3rd R) visits the Large Hadron Collider of the European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN (Centre Europeen de Recherche Nucleaire) in Geneva. Getty Images Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider Technicians work at the building of the cap of the Large Hadron Collider. Some 2000 scientists from 155 institutes in 36 countries are working together to build the CMS particle detector. Getty Images Smashing! Atom record for Large Hadron Collider Rolf-Dieter Heuer, who is to become the director of CERN, with a giant photograph of the CMS detector of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the "Weltmaschine "("World Machine") exhibition in Berlin, Germany. Getty Images

The Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, was built between 1998 and 2008.

It is operating beyond expectations in its second extended run – which is ongoing – and is providing more data than expected, Mr Charlton and Mr Camporesi said, according to the Press Association.

Physicists from Cern have presented more than 50 new results, but none of them are breakthrough findings that would change current theory.