CERN has approved plans to build a $23 billion super-collider 100 km in circumference (62 miles)

that would make the current 27 km 16 teraelectron volt (TeV) Large Hadron Collider (LHC) look tiny
in comparison. The so-called Future Circular Collider (FCC) would smash particles together with over
100 TeV of energy to create many more of the elusive Higgs bosons first detected by CERN in 2012.
This “Higgs factory” would be key to helping physicists learn more about dark matter and other
mysteries of the Standard Model of physics.

“Such a machine would produce copious amounts of Higgs bosons in a very clean environment,
would make dramatic progress in mapping the diverse interactions of the Higgs boson with other
particles and [allow] measurements of extremely high precision,” the CERN council wrote in a press
release.

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.