Looking forward: At over 16 miles in length, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is an incredible feat of human engineering, but a new Cern-approved super collider makes the LHC seem small in comparison. With a circumference of more than 62 miles, the Future Circular Collider (FCC) would be four times larger and six times more powerful than the current particle crushing machine and would cost $ 23 billion.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as Cern, has approved plans for the FCC, which would allow physicists to study the Higgs boson more accurately, learn more about dark matter, and search for new particles and other mysteries.
After Peter Higgs and five other scientists theorized the Higgs boson particle in 1964, Cern first detected it using the LHC in 2012.
Speaking about the Future Circular Collider, Cern said: “Such a machine would produce large numbers of Higgs bosons in a very clean environment, would make dramatic progress in mapping the various interactions of the Higgs boson with other particles, and [allow] extremely high precision measurements. “
Assuming financial support is assured, construction could start in 2038, and it will take around ten years to build the new machine, which means it won’t be operational until the 2040s. The first step is a geological survey to ensure that there are no underground lakes or other features below the Geneva site.
The $ 23 billion cost to the FCC will require investment from EU member states and Cern participants, along with a commitment to continue funding in the 2050s. Cern may also need to turn to other nations for help. financial, including EE. USA, China and Japan.
As reported by The Guardian, the plan is for the FCC to be built in two stages. The first would involve the machine colliding electrons and positrons to maximize the production of Higgs bosons. It is expected that by the 2050s, a second version could be breaking protons along with an energy of 100 teraelectronvolts (TeV), about six times more than the capacity of the LHC, which could uncover new phenomena.
The new super collider would also allow scientists to study more precisely how the Higgs bosons decompose, some theorizing that they decompose into dark matter particles.
The current Large Hadron Collider is in the process of being updated and will restart in May next year, until the end of 2024. Its final execution is expected to begin in late 2027.
Image credit: Belish
