In two decades, Geneva may be encircled by the biggest scientific instrument ever built, albeit several dozen meters below the surface. Exactly two years ago, CERN unveiled plans for an enormous particle accelerator that would help physicists delve further into the workings of the universe.
The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) has made important strides in humanity’s understanding of the universe, not least through the discovery of the Higgs boson (one of the elementary particles in the Standard Model) in 2012.
The Standard Model explains the behavior of all known particles in the universe and three of the four forces through which they interact. “But we know from observation of phenomena in the universe that the Standard Model is not complete.” For example, while there has been observational evidence of dark matter in galaxies, we have not yet seen the elementary particle associated with it. Other mysteries include the absence of antimatter in a universe dominated by matter.
The goal of the FCC (Future Circular Collider) is to push the energy and intensity frontiers of particle colliders, with the aim of reaching collision energies of 100 TeV, in the search for new physics. The current LHC reaches collision energies of 14 TeV.
An international collaboration of more than 150 universities, research institutes and industrial partners from all over the world are developing possibilities for circular colliders, new detector facilities, the associated infrastructure, cost estimates, global implementation scenarios, as well as appropriate international governance structures.
Is it me, or is an awful lot of time, money, and energy being spent in the search to prove the origins of the universe? They can keep using that excuse all they want... I think there's something more sinister going on. (Listen to episode 24 for more info.)
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