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China’s New Collider Promises to Be the Largest in the World, with 100 km in Circumference, Offering a More Cost-Effective and Powerful Alternative for Subatomic Particle Investigation
China does not want to miss out on the study of the “God Particle.” The discovery of the Higgs boson more than a decade ago continues to have consequences in current physics, as it confirmed the existence of the theorized Higgs field. This is important because its study allows us to understand the interactions between subatomic particles and learn more about the structure of the universe.
It was a great achievement, and research continues to learn more about supersymmetry, new particles, and the mysterious dark matter, which is one of the most unknown components of the universe. The achievement was by researchers at CERN and was carried out at the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC. Now, China wants its own particle accelerator and seeks not only for it to be larger but also much cheaper and easier to construct.
The Fight for a New Collider
The European LHC is a massive tunnel with a circumference of 27 kilometers located almost 180 meters below ground, close to Geneva. The greatest achievement was the detection of the mentioned Higgs boson in 2012, but in its facilities, scientists continue to investigate the composition of atoms, how they interact with each other, whether there are unknown dimensions as predicted by string theory models, and ultimately, to test other theories of particle physics and quantum physics.
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In these investigations, they fire atoms at enormous speeds, hoping they collide with each other, generating a reaction that researchers can study. This, of course, summarized in a tremendously simple way, but it seems that the LHC is becoming too small for the new investigations they want to conduct, and they are planning a larger collider. Much larger.
The New European Super Collider
A future super collider is already on the table. The goal? To accelerate the study of dark matter, which is estimated to make up 95% of the universe. In an interview with the BBC, Professor Fabiola Gianotti – director general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research – states that to carry out the process, they need “something big.”
Describing the new accelerator as “a wonderful machine,” Gianotti believes it will be “a tool that will allow humanity to make enormous strides in response to fundamental physics questions regarding our understanding of the universe. For that, we need a more powerful instrument.”
It is estimated that the new European super collider will have a circumference of 91 kilometers and will have a first construction phase costing 17 billion dollars. The goal is to have it operational by 2040, with a second phase with more powerful magnets by 2070, although there are dissenting voices who consider it a waste and believe the LHC can yield more. There are countries that, directly, say they will not fund their share.
China’s Ambitious Plans
Now, China enters the fray. In 2018, news emerged about the giant Asian country’s ambitious plans to build a huge collider. Initially called the Circular Electron-Positron Collider, or CPEC, it will have the same mission to investigate everything related to the Higgs boson. Wang Yifang, director of the Institute of High Energy Physics in China, stated that “the CPEC will be the largest electron-positron collider in the world.”
Not many details have been given about it, but a conceptual design was shared showing a massive collider with a circumference of 100 kilometers and the ambition to be seven times more powerful than the LHC. Furthermore, the goal was to produce millions of Higgs particles to study them more accurately than in the European collider. Another objective is for it to be more efficient. Instead of colliding protons (which generate Higgs particles along with other types), the Chinese collider will collide electrons and positrons, which will only produce Higgs particles.
The Cost and Collaborations of the Chinese Project
Since the first information, six years have passed, but in a recent article published in Nature, we can see that China has not forgotten its ambitious plans. The new article again talks about a CEPC with a diameter of 100 kilometers, and different researchers reaffirm this intention to be more precise in studying the properties of the boson.
And the most surprising thing is that the cost of the project would be “only” 5 billion dollars. Compared to the estimate for the European super collider, it is less than a third. In the Nature article, Andrew Cohen suggests that China can build the accelerator without anyone else’s help, but for certain parts of the world, like the detection system, they will need international assistance.
On the other hand, another complication that China may encounter is international cooperation. Tian Yu Cao, a historian and philosopher of particle physics and quantum theory, believes that “there will be greater resistance from the West to assist China” due to the current climate of technological war and, above all, trade between the United States (and both Western and Asian partners) and China.
Despite everything, in China they express confidence and say they are completely prepared for a project like this which, if all goes well, will begin construction in 2027 and start operating before the new Western collider. We will see what happens, as the study of the God particle may add to the current climate of tension between China and… the rest of the world.
Image | CERN
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