By Robbert van der Linde
05 Feb 2024 at 17:10
Researchers at CERN have submitted a request to build a new particle accelerator three times larger than the Large Hadron Collider. They want to do fundamental research with this. But there are doubts whether the machine is worth the huge price tag.
A particle accelerator is a machine that scientists use to investigate elementary particles. These are the smallest particles that something can consist of. The particles are so small that they can only be seen when they are moving. Because these particles cannot be further divided, research into them is called fundamental research.
Scientists use a particle accelerator to collide atoms with each other at extremely high speed. This happens at almost the speed of light. Thanks to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the Higgs boson, also known as the ‘God particle’, was found in 2012. That is one of the most important ‘building blocks’ of the universe. The scientists hope to discover new particles with a larger particle accelerator.
The scientists want to learn more about dark matter and dark energy. It’s estimated that 95 percent of the entire universe is made up of those two things, but we can’t see them directly.
If the project is approved, construction won’t begin until 2040 at the earliest. “Then we will take a huge step toward answers to the most important questions about the universe. But for that we need even more powerful instruments,” said CERN director Fabiola Gianotti, the European Center for Nuclear Research, against BBC News.
The LHC is located in Geneva and runs through a 27 kilometer tunnel under the border between France and Switzerland. The new Future Circular Collider to be built should be more than three times as long at 91 kilometers. The costs are estimated at 14 to 19 billion euros. The LHC cost around 4.4 billion euros to build in 2008.
The new particle accelerator should be more than three times larger than the Large Hadron Collider. Photo: BBC News
Doubts about high costs
The scientists’ construction request must still be approved by a special CERN committee. The billions of euros that the project costs must be covered by the 23 countries affiliated with the European research institute, including the Netherlands.
Critics doubt whether a new, larger particle accelerator can find answers that the LHC failed to discover. Scientists expected the LHC to provide more answers about dark matter and dark energy, but that has not happened so far.
The uncertainty as to whether a larger particle accelerator would provide those answers makes it irresponsible to spend so much money on it, according to opponents. This is what David King, the former science adviser to the British government, called the proposal in conversation with BBC News “reckless”.
Scientists are also not yet sure whether a circular tube is the right way. Some physicists propose that a straight tube would be cheaper and could produce the same results.
What are dark energy and dark matter?
- Dark energy is a hypothesized energy in the universe. This energy has the effect of reverse gravity.
- Scientists think dark energy is causing the universe to expand.
- Dark matter is a hypothesized matter, or dust.
- Scientists rely on dark matter to explain, among other things, the movements of stars.
- The ‘dark’ refers to the fact that we cannot see this energy and matter.
- It is estimated that 68 percent of the universe consists of dark energy. Dark matter accounts for 27 percent.
- ‘Normal’ matter makes up only 5 percent of the universe. Only that part we can actually observe so far.
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2024-02-05 16:10:24
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