Source: AFP
Europe’s CERN laboratory revealed more details on Monday about its plans for a massive new particle accelerator to eclipse the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), stepping up efforts to uncover the universe’s underlying secrets.
If approved, the Future Circular Collider (FCC) will begin crushing its first particles around the middle of this century — and begin its highest-energy collisions around 2070.
Operating under France and Switzerland, it would be more than three times the length of CERN’s LHC, currently the largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
The idea behind both is to send particles spinning around a ring to smash into each other at nearly the speed of light, so that the collisions reveal their true nature.
Among other discoveries, the LHC made history in 2012 when it allowed scientists to observe the Higgs boson for the first time.
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But the LHC, which cost $5.6 billion and began operating in 2010, is expected to complete its run by around 2040.
A faster and stronger FCC would allow scientists to keep pushing the envelope. They hope it could confirm the existence of more particles — the building blocks of matter — that have so far only been assumed.
Another unfinished business for science is figuring out exactly what 95 percent of the universe is made of. About 68 percent of the universe is believed to be dark energy while 27 percent is dark matter — both of which remain a complete mystery.
Another unknown is why there is so little antimatter in the universe, compared to matter.
CERN hopes that a massive upgrade to humanity’s ability to crush particles could shed light on these mysteries and more.
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“Our aim is to study the properties of matter at the smallest scale and at the highest energy,” said CERN director general Fabiola Gianotti, presenting an interim report in Geneva.
The report presented the first findings of an FCC feasibility study that will be completed by 2025.
$17 billion first stage
In 2028, CERN’s member states, which include the UK and Israel, will decide whether or not to go ahead with the plan.
If given the go-ahead, construction of the accelerator would begin in 2033.
The project is divided into parts.
In 2048, the “electron-positron” accelerator will begin crushing light particles, aiming to further investigate the Higgs boson and the so-called weak force, one of the four fundamental forces.
The cost of the tunnel, infrastructure and the first stage of the collider will be about 15 billion Swiss francs ($17 billion), Gianotti said.
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The Heavy Hadron Collider, which would smash protons together, wouldn’t come online until 2070.
Its energy target would be 100 trillion electron volts — smashing the LHC’s record of 13.6 trillion.
Gianotti said this later accelerator is “the only machine” that would allow humanity to “make a great leap in the study of matter.”
After eight years of study, the configuration chosen for the FCC was a new circular tunnel 90.7 kilometers (56.5 mi) long and 5.5 meters in diameter.
The tunnel, which would connect to the LHC, would pass under the Geneva region and its lake of the same name in Switzerland and travel south near the picturesque French town of Annecy.
Eight technical and scientific spaces will be built on the surface.
CERN said it is consulting with areas along the route and plans to carry out impact studies on how the tunnel will affect the area.
Source: AFP