Today was our last day of learning at CERN!
We learned about the next generation of collider from Michael Benedikt. First, he talked about the location; that it is being proposed by CERN, a roughly 90 km ring set to fit under Lake Geneva and under the local mountains before the pre-Alps. Once built, it will begin by being a electron-electron collider that will raise the energy of incoming electrons using a LINAC (linear accelerator) booster to get the particles up to speed. This large collider, called the FCC (Future Circular Collider) will not accelerate the particles but maintain the energy lost as the particles turn corners and radiate synchrotron radiation. This happens because the particles have such and incredible amount of energy that when their momentum is changed by the magnets, they emit photons and lose energy in that way. So the four RF cavities spaced around the accelerator will be used to keep the energy at the high levels instead of continuing to add energy to the particle beam. So whereas the previous colliders have also been accelerators, LHC, LEP, SPS, etc, this one's job is singular: collide particles.
The collider will ramp up in energy as it goes from an e-e collider to a p-p collider and will need time to make that transition just as the LEP became the LHC. The energies created at this collider will be enough to create Higgs bosons at volume to make lot of measurements and really fine tune what we know about it and its behavior with itself and with other particles. One colleague suggested that perhaps we will learn about the relationship between the Higgs and the proposed graviton particle which only exists at the Planck length if it exists at all. What does that mean? It means that the energy necessary to see it would be well above what we can generate even in the highest of energies that the FCC will reach.
In the discussion, Michael told us about the engineering that goes into this decision, the environmental assessments, the diplomacy needed between member nations and constituents in the villages that the ring will pass under. In their discussions, they are looking for ways to use the molasse that will be drilled from the track that is 200 meters below ground. The material is sterile, but could be used to fill old quarries or mixed with fertilizer to make park land. Also, the waste heat could be reappropriated to support local communities and help cheese makers in the area. The dig will take about 8 years and another year to finish the caverns for the four experiments. All this will likely begin (assuming funding is passed and all local stakeholders agree) when the HL-LHC (High Luminosity LHC) is deactivated around 2041. This is an incredible feat and could set up the particle physics world until 2100!!
We completed our learned with a Question and Answer Period with Dr Sascha Schmeling who is knowledgeable at every level of CERN from a user perspective to an administrator. He has seen a thing or two, so he knows a thing or every. He fired off answers to questions ranging for the engineering of the new FCC to detection of gravitons to AI and everything in between. It was a wonderful Q&A session and I was so glad to be there. What an experience it has been. If you want to watch the final share outs, you can watch us here: at this link.
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