CERN research lab submits plans for next-generation model

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The European Centre for Particle Research, 'CERN', has submitted proposals for a new particle accelerator.

Transcript

00:00 So the Large Hadron Collider is our facility for investigating particle physics, the science

00:08 that tries to tell us what the universe is made of at the very smallest scales.

00:13 It's the biggest machine we've ever made for science and it's situated in Geneva in Switzerland.

00:19 Well speaking of big, the Future Circular Collider, it doesn't exist yet, what is being

00:25 proposed?

00:27 So this is a next generation particle physics facility and the proposal is this will be

00:33 the facility that takes over from the Large Hadron Collider when that stops taking data

00:38 in 2040.

00:40 And the FCC, the Future Circular Collider, is going to be even bigger.

00:45 So that's going to be, it's designed to be 91 kilometres round, 27 kilometres of the

00:53 Large Hadron Collider just shrinks in comparison and it's due to, well it's proposed to start

00:59 taking data in 2045, 2048 and then carry on for virtually the rest of the century.

01:06 And what's the motivation for it in terms of what it'll be able to do that the hadron

01:10 can't?

01:13 So it's really designed to be a discovery machine and a good way to think about it is

01:18 if you want to understand the universe and you want to have a more powerful telescope,

01:24 you build one that lets you see further and it lets you see everything around you in more

01:28 detail.

01:29 Well, we do the same but our equipment, rather than being a telescope, is like an enormously

01:35 powerful microscope.

01:37 So for us to make progress in looking at the smallest constituents of the universe, the

01:42 small building blocks that ultimately make up atoms and stars, then we build a microscope

01:47 that gets as powerful as it can be and that looks at everything in as sharp a resolution

01:53 as possible.

01:55 And the FCC is the next step up in microscope resolving power and ability to look into the

02:02 very smallest reaches of the universe for us.

02:06 And armed with that knowledge, what does it mean practically?

02:11 So from our point of view as scientists, it's going to be the facility that tells us much

02:16 more about the Higgs boson, this famous particle that was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider,

02:22 because only a facility like the Future Circular Collider can tell us many of the facets of

02:27 this particle that we can then relate into some fundamental knowledge of.

02:32 Is the universe stable?

02:35 Why are the forces that govern the size of atoms and their stability the size that they

02:40 are and so on?

02:41 It can address many, many fundamental questions for us.

02:45 But more than the science, it's the technology that we develop to achieve this is going to

02:50 be absolutely massive.

02:52 It's going to have so many uses.

02:54 This facility is going to demand really energy efficient refrigeration and cryogenics and

03:00 that has applications all over the place and transportation and communication and medical

03:07 physics.

03:08 The really strong magnets that we need to invent, well, they can find uses in fusion

03:15 and the vacuum technology that we invent, well, that can help solar panels be more efficient.

03:21 All these novel materials that somehow need to come into existence if we're going to achieve

03:25 this are going to be so useful elsewhere as well.

03:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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