At a special meeting today in Budapest, CERN’s member states updated their vision for the future of particle physics. A future, larger particle accelerator at CERN is now part of the updated scientific vision.
During the meeting in the Hungarian capital on Friday, the CERN Council adopted a resolution asking CERN management to prepare a decision on the new accelerator. To this end, CERN must seek political support and funding. The Council of 25 member states aims to be in a position to make a go-nogo decision by 2028.
The ESPP recommendations were the result of a multi-year exploration of the wishes and ideas from the European particle physics community regarding the most desirable future for the field. This directly impacts the future of the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva, where the LHC, the world’s largest accelerator, is currently in operation.
In Budapest over the past few days, meetings were held regarding the recommendations from that study, by the European Strategy Group, which were released back in December.
According to the ESPP recommendations, a 90-kilometer-long underground superconducting accelerator ring with electrons and positrons at 240 GeV is the best option for precision research on the Higgs particle and for helping particle physics gain new insights. CERN itself has been committed to this Future Circular Collider for years.
This FCC ring will feature four large detectors, just like the current LHC accelerator at CERN. The LHC will continue taking measurements until the early 2040s. After that, the FCC could become the new flagship of European particle physics.
All member states of the particle physics lab in Geneva are represented on the CERN Council, including the Netherlands, one of the founding members. Representing the Netherlands on the Council is Utrecht professor Raimond Snellings of Nikhef. On Friday, the Netherlands fully endorsed the Council resolution.
Nikhef Director Jorgen D’Hondt was a member of the Strategy Group. He is pleased with the outcome of the Council meeting in Budapest. “After thorough preparation, I am particularly enthusiastic that the scientific community has now spoken out clearly and unequivocally in favor of building the FCC accelerator at CERN. This project will offer us a unique glimpse into the world of the smallest particles for the rest of this century.”
Director general Mark Thomson in a press conference said het he was delighted with the result of the Council Meeting. “For two reasons. For the High Luminosity LHC project to be the current short term priority. And the FCC project designated for the long term. We are pleased to have this huge task ahead.”
In the shorter term, the top priority for ESPP is to fully utilize the data from the LHC accelerator and its upgraded version, the more powerful HL-LHC, which will be in operation from 2030 to 2041.
In addition, according to the Strategy Group, Europe must continue to focus on research into neutrinos and dark matter, with and without accelerators, including in the U.S. and Japan. The theoretical physics community can focus even more strongly on the precision of theoretical predictions, in order to identify deviations from known physics.
New superconductors and magnet concepts must be developed for future accelerators. And where possible, the rise of graphics computing, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing should also be leveraged, according to the ESPP. A prerequisite for all proposals is minimal impact on nature, the environment, and the climate.
