On Monday, CERN unveiled more details of its large new particle accelerator program, which will dwarf the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), stepping up efforts to reveal the underlying secrets of the universe.
If approved, the Future Circular Collider (FCC) will begin to smash the first particles together around mid-century and the highest energy collisions around 2070.
Running under the leadership of France and Switzerland, it will be more than three times the length of the LHC, the largest and most powerful particle accelerator currently at CERN.
The idea behind both is to make the particles that rotate around the ring collide with each other at a speed close to the speed of light, so that the collision can reveal their true nature.
Among other discoveries, the Large Hadron Collider made history in 2012, allowing scientists to observe the Higgs boson for the first time. But the $5.6 billion Large Hadron Collider, which began operations in 2010, is expected to be operational around 2040.
A faster and stronger Federal Communications Commission will allow scientists to continue pushing the envelope. They hope it will confirm the existence of more particles – the building blocks of matter – which so far have been only theoretical.
Another unfinished business of science is figuring out what 95% of the universe is made of. About 68% of the universe is thought to be dark energy and 27% is dark matter – both are a complete mystery.
Another unknown question is why there is so little antimatter than matter in the universe. CERN hopes that a massive upgrade in humanity's ability to smash particles could unravel these mysteries and more.
Our goal is to study the properties of matter at the smallest scale and at the highest energy," said FAOLA Gianotti, Director General of CERN, presenting an interim report in Geneva.
The report sets out the preliminary results of the FCC feasibility study, which will be completed in 2025. In 2028, CERN member states, including the United Kingdom and Israel, will decide whether to implement the plan.
If approved, the construction of the collider will begin in 2033.
This project is divided into several parts.
In 2048, the electron-positron collider will begin colliding light particles, with the aim of further studying the Higgs boson and the so-called weak force (one of the four fundamental forces).
Gianotti said the cost of the first phase of tunneling, infrastructure and collider was around 15 billion Swiss francs ($17 billion). The Heavy Hadron Collider, which crushes protons together, will be operational in 2070.
Its energy target is 100 trillion electron volts, breaking the Large Hadron Collider 13A record of 6 trillion electron volts.
Gianotti said the later collider was "the only machine" that would allow humanity to "take a major leap forward in the study of matter."
After 8 years of research, FCC chose a new circular tunnel, 90 years long7 km, diameter 55 meters.
The tunnel, which is connected to the Large Hadron Collider, will pass through the Geneva region and its namesake Swiss lake, winding south to the picturesque French town of Annecy neighborhood.
CERN said it was consulting with regions along the route and planned to conduct an impact study on the tunnel's impact on the region.