CERN will build a new hadron collider, three times larger than the current one
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The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) presented plans for the construction of a new accelerator for the study of elementary particles. It should be three times larger than the existing Large Hadron Collider and six times its power. If the plans are approved, the system could be put into operation in the 2040s.
The project is called Future Circular Collider (“Future Circular Collider”, FCC). It was conceived in 2019, and now CERN has presented the plan and budget for discussion. FCC should be located in the same place as the Large Hadron Collider – in the mountains on the border of France and Switzerland, but its circumference will be almost 100 kilometers (against 27 at BAC), and it will be twice as deep. The power with which it will collide subatomic particles will be 100 teraelectronvolts (at the BAC — a maximum of 14 TeV).
According to scientists, it will be possible to make breakthrough discoveries in the field of dark matter and dark energy, which have been described by theorists, at the new collider. But they have not yet been found experimentally. According to the general director of CERN, Professor Fabiola Gianotta, it will become “a powerful tool that will allow humanity to take a huge step forward in the questions of fundamental physics that concern our knowledge of the Universe.”
The cost of construction of the FCC is preliminarily estimated at about 20 billion euros.
In the academic world, the project has its critics. The former chief scientific officer of the British government, Sir David King, in a commentary by the BBC called it reckless to invest such huge sums in theoretical research when the world is facing a climate crisis. In his opinion, it is necessary to finance, first of all, climate research and measures to combat global warming. Dr. Sabina Hossenfelder from the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy believes that the FCC, unlike the BAC, will only help with more accurate measurements, but not a breakthrough in science. “It’s time for elementary particle physics to rest, it’s time for quantum physics,” she said.
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