CERN reveal details of proposed 100km-diameter successor to LHC

The search for new particle physics may entail building a successor to the Large Hadron Collider consisting of a 100km-diameter cyclotron capable of smashing subatomic particles together with 10 times more energy than the LHC. The Future Circular Collider (FCC) commission, involving 1300 contributors from 150 universities, research institutions and industrial partners, has published its four-volume Conceptual Design Report (CDR), detailing the technical challenges, cost and schedule for building the proposed device, which it hopes would discover a new class of subatomic particles involved in mediating the forces at work in the universe.

The CDR is part of a roadmap to be drawn up by particle physicists as an update to the European Strategy for Particle Physics. Over the next two years, the scientists will decide how to continue their research after the Large Hadron Collider. The FCC is not the only plan to be considered: another option is a large linear collider, known as CLIC (compact linear collider).