Context: Recently, CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) scientists are advancing plans for a multibillion-euro project to construct the more powerful Future Circular Collider. The collider plans to start operating by 2040 with an estimated cost of around 17 billion dollar.

About Future Circular Collider (FCC)

• The Future Circular Collider (FCC) is an international design study for a new particle collider.

• It is CERN's envisioned project to build a larger and more powerful particle collider, surpassing the capabilities of the existing Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

• FCC aims to start operating in a first phase by 2040.

• The FCC aims to smash particles at higher energies, which could lead to the discovery of new particles and forces.

• The FCC aims to achieve particle collision energy levels of 100 TeV, approximately eight times more powerful than the LHC's 13 TeV.

• This could help scientists understand some of the universe's mysteries, such as dark matter, dark energy, and the matter-antimatter asymmetry.

• CERN leaders see the FCC as a catalyst for innovation in areas such as cryogenics, superconducting magnets, vacuum technologies, and detector-instrumentation technologies.

What is a particle collider?

• A particle collider is a type of particle accelerator that uses charged particles to smash atoms into pieces.

• The accelerator uses electricity to push the charged particles along a path, making them go faster and faster.

• Colliders can be ring accelerators or linear accelerators.

• They bring two opposing particle beams together so that the particles collide.

• They are powerful research tools in particle physics because they reach a higher center of mass energy than fixed target setups.

• The Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful accelerator in the world.

• It boosts particles, such as protons, to a speed close to that of light, where they collide with other protons.

• These collisions produce massive particles, such as the Higgs boson or the top quark.

• Particle accelerators are also used for radioisotope production, industrial radiography, radiation therapy, sterilization of biological materials, and a certain form of radiocarbon dating.