In a new development strategy paper, CERN emphasized that its current priority is to complete a “high-luminosity” upgrade of the current LHC with high-field superconducting NbSn magnets. This would create many times more collisions than the LHC can now, boosting the chances of seeing Higgs bosons and other rare particles.
The future collider would be built in two stages. The first iteration would smash electrons and positrons together to maximize production of Higgs bosons so that scientists can get more accurate data on the particles. The second version would be a 100 TeV proton-proton collider designed to generate new particles that could expand on or even replace the Standard Model.
The aim is to start construction of the new tunnel by 2038, but there’s one massive hurdle: money. The new project is so expensive that CERN will need to seek funding outside its EU member state nations. Instead, it might need to create a global organization that includes the US, China and Japan.
It could be a hard sell, especially as the new collider wouldn’t have as clear a goal as the LHC did. However, particle physics and the Standard Model are at a place where the application of science is needed to validate theories. “We do know that the only way to find answers is by experiment and the only place to find them is where we haven’t been able to look yet,” UK physicist Tara Shears told Nature.
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