New CERN super collider ‘to push envelope’

Europe’s CERN laboratory has revealed more details about its plans for a huge new particle ­accelerator that would dwarf the Large Hadron Collider.

Part of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. Picture: Getty Images

Europe’s CERN laboratory has revealed more details about its plans for a huge new particle ­accelerator that would dwarf the Large Hadron Collider, ramping up efforts to uncover the underlying secrets of the universe.

If approved, the Future Circular Collider would start smashing its first particles together around the middle of this century – and start its highest-­energy collisions around 2070.

Running under France and Switzerland, it would be more than triple the length of the Hadron Collider, the largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

The idea behind both is to send particles spinning around a ring to smash into each at nearly the speed of light, so that the collisions reveal their true nature.

Among other discoveries, the Hadron made history in 2012 when it allowed scientists to ­observe the Higgs boson for the first time.

But the Hadron, which cost $US5.6bn and began operating in 2010, is expected to have run its course by around 2040.

The faster and more powerful Future Collider would allow scientists to continue pushing the envelope. They hope it could confirm the existence of more particles – the building blocks of matter – which so far have only been theorised.

Another unfinished job for science is working out exactly what 95 per cent of the universe is made of. About 68 per cent of the universe is believed to be dark energy while 27 per cent is dark matter – both remain a complete mystery.

Some of the 1232 dipole magnets that bend the path of accelerated protons in the Large Hadron Collider. Picture: AFP

Another unknown is why there is so little antimatter in the universe, compared with matter.

“Our aim is to study the properties of matter at the smallest scale and highest energy,” CERN director-general Fabiola Gianotti said as she presented an interim report in Geneva on Monday (Tuesday AEDT).

The report laid out the first findings of a Future Collider feasibility study that will be finalised by 2025.

In 2028, CERN’s member states, which include Britain and Israel, will decide whether to go through with the plan. If given the green light, construction on the collider would start in 2033.

In 2048, the “electron-positron” collider would start smashing light particles, with the aim of further investigating the Higgs boson and what is called the weak force, one of the four fundamental forces.

The cost of the tunnel, infrastructure and the first stage of the collider would be about 15bn Swiss francs ($30bn), Dr Gianotti said.

After eight years of study, the configuration chosen for the Fast Collider was a new circular tunnel 90.7km long and 5.5m in diameter. The tunnel, which would connect to the Hadron Collider, would pass under the Geneva ­region and its namesake lake in Switzerland, and loop to the south near French town Annecy.

AFP