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The Future Circular Collider (FCC) study is developing designs for higher performance particle colliders that could follow on from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) once it reaches the end of its (High-Luminosity phase).
A schematic map showing a possible location for the Future Circular Collider.
The ongoing FCC Feasibility Study, expected to conclude in 2025, is investigating the technical and financial viability of the FCC at CERN, including geological feasibility, environmental impact, design of infrastructures, civil engineering and detectors, as well as R&D on technologies for the efficiency and sustainability of the proposed colliders.
A new tunnel is planned with a circumference of 90.7 km, an average depth of 200 m and eight surface sites for up to four experiments. The tunnel would initially house the FCC-ee, an electron–positron collider for precision measurements offering a 15-year research programme from the mid-2040s. A second machine, the FCC-hh, would then be installed in the same tunnel, reusing the existing infrastructure, similar to when the LHC replaced LEP. The FCC-hh aims to reach collision energies of 100 TeV, colliding protons and also heavy-ions, and running until the end of the 21st century.
The tentative timeline is:
For context, the physics case for the LHC was made in 1984; it then took about 10 years for the project to be approved and 25 years for the magnets to be developed and installed.
The discovery of Higgs boson led to new questions, including “What role did the Higgs boson play during the Big Bang, and how did it influence the Universe’s evolution?” “Can the Higgs boson help explain other fundamental open questions that the Standard Model cannot address, including dark matter and the excess of matter over antimatter?”
Solutions to these questions can be found in the vast landscape of possible physics scenarios lying beyond the Standard Model. Some scenarios suggest the existence of new, heavier particles, beyond the reach of the LHC, calling for higher-energy facilities. Others suggest the existence of lighter particles that interact very weakly with Standard Model particles and whose detection requires huge amounts of data to be collected and great sensitivity to the elusive signals of their production. By providing considerable advances in sensitivity and precision with the FCC-ee and, ultimately, energy far beyond the LHC with the FCC-hh, the FCC programme would allow physicists to explore this new landscape in full.
CERN has several options for future colliders, which are either circular or linear in shape. The lightness of the Higgs boson and the no-show so far of other new elementary particles at the LHC make circular e+e- colliders an appealing alternative to linear machines. They enable significantly higher luminosity and up to four experiments, while also offering the infrastructure for a subsequent hadron collider.
Beyond the creation of new knowledge, studies show that the FCC would deliver benefits that outweigh its cost. Impacts on industry from high-tech developments, the sustained training of early-career researchers and engineers, the development of open and free software, the creation of spin-off companies, cultural goods and other factors lead to an estimated benefit–cost ratio of 1.66. The FCC project is linked to the creation of around 800 000 person-years of employment, according to the FCC mid-term report, and the FCC-ee scientific programme is estimated to generate an overall local economic impact of more than €4 billion.
