CERN announced that they plan to create a particle accelerator, which is 4 times larger than the Large Hadron Collider
The universe is filled with mysterious particles that obey rules unknown to us. But breaking them up almost at the speed of light with the help of large machines (particle accelerators), physicists sometimes manage to see the invisible.
The idea of creating one of the most powerful particle accelerators, which will be 4 times larger than the current Large Hadron Collider, is being actively discussed. This is a ring with a length of 27 km at CERN (Switzerland).
The Large Hadron Collider became known for discovering the elusive Higgs boson, which explains how other particles get their own mass. Now everyone uses the Standard Model, which shows how forces and particles interact in the Universe. However, the problem is that this model fails. For example, it does not take into account dark matter - an invisible force affecting gravitational attraction.
Now scientists hope that a larger and more powerful machine will be able to give clues about what dark matter consists of. The new mechanism will be called the Future Cyclic Collider, which will cover 80-100 km in length. That is, it will provide the distance at which the particles can accelerate and gain the necessary energy. The collider will be created in stages: the first machine will push electrons and positrons, and the second will push protons together. Physicists hope that a larger model will allow us to understand how Higgs particles interact with each other. In addition, it may be possible to find previously unrecorded particles or see what matter was in the early Universe.
While some rejoice, others do not think that the new mechanism will open something new. Some also believe that it is better to allocate finances for more important projects, such as solving the problem of climate change. If the project on the new collider is approved, then it will take 20 years to design, construct and test. And the cost will be about 24 billion euros for the two mechanisms and the tunnel.
