Scientists building the world's largest atom smasher have unveiled a design for a much larger successor that could help solve some of the remaining mysteries of physics.
Plans for this future circular collider, which would form a nearly 57-mile loop along the French-Swiss border and even extend under Lake Geneva, were unveiled Monday evening, finalizing the details of a project that has been in the works for nearly a decade at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
The study describes aspects such as the proposed route, environmental impact, scientific objectives and financial costs of the project.
Independent experts will assess the situation before CERN's two dozen member states (all European except Israel) decide in 2028 on how to move forward. This will require around 14 billion Swiss francs (about £12.5 billion) from the mid-2040s.
CERN officials promise scientific discoveries that could inspire innovations in areas such as cryogenics, superconducting magnets and vacuum technology that could benefit humanity.
Outside experts noted that there was potential to gain additional insights into the Higgs boson, the mysterious particle that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang.
“This set of reports represents a significant milestone in the process, but a full understanding of the likelihood of its occurrence will only be possible after a comprehensive review by scientists, engineers, and others, including policymakers, who must make difficult decisions in the face of ongoing uncertainty,” Dave Toback, a professor of physics and astronomy at Texas A&M University, wrote in an email.
The new collider “opens up exciting possibilities for the particle physics community and indeed for all of physics internationally,” said Professor Toback, who was not involved in the research and worked for many years at the Tevatron collider at Fermilab in the US, which closed in 2011.
For about a decade, CERN's top scientists have been developing plans for a successor to the Large Hadron Collider – a network of magnets that would accelerate particles through a 17-mile underground tunnel and smash them together at speeds approaching the speed of light.
Work at the particle collider confirmed in 2013 the existence of the Higgs boson, a key piece of the puzzle known as the standard model, which helps explain some of the fundamental forces in the universe.
The CERN scientists, engineers and partners involved in the study considered more than 100 different scenarios for the new collider before proposing a circle at an average depth of 200 metres.
According to CERN, the tunnel diameter will be about five meters.
“Ultimately, we aim to build a collider that will generate 10 times more energy than we have today,” said Arnaud Marsollier, a CERN spokesman.
“When you have more energy, you are able to create more massive particles.”
A larger collider will also provide greater precision, allowing for greater insight into the properties of the Higgs boson, “which we only have a vague idea of right now,” he added.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
