The US and CERN will work more closely together to develop major research facilities, starting with feasibility studies on the FCC-ee Higgs factory.
This was agreed upon the last week of April in Washington. For CERN, Director General Fabiola Gianotti signed the agreement.
The declaration does cover U.S. participation in projects in Europe, as well as European participation in U.S. projects in particle physics, computing and open science.
Consideration is also being given to setting up a joint pilot project for new analytical techniques such as artificial intelligence for particle physics.
Starting points are the 2020 update of the European strategy for particle physics and the priorities set by the U.S. for physics in 2023. Both cite the Higgs particle discovered in 2012 as an important new tool for research in particle physics.
With last week’s agreement, the US and Europe reaffirm already existing cooperation.
FCC is the possible successor to the LHC accelerator at CERN, in which initially electrons will collide and produce as many Higgs particles as possible. An international feasibility study is currently underway for such a roughly 90-kilometer accelerator ring. China also has plans for a new super-accelerator, and ind e US is discussing muon accelerators.
If Europe decides to build an FCC accelerator, the US will help build and research with it, subject to political approval.