The CEPC (Circular Electron Positron Collider) is the future particle accelerator largest in the world than the China he decided to build to explore the deepest secrets of the universe. This is a long underground tunnel 100kmas the Rome ring road, designed to collide subatomic particles at speeds close to that of light and study the Higgs boson. The project is ambitious in high energy physics. But what differentiates it from other existing accelerators, such as the famous LHC at CERN, the current most powerful particle accelerator in the world?
What is a particle accelerator and what will CEPC be used for in China
The particle accelerators they are instruments that allow us to study matter at a microscopic level, causing particles such as protons, electrons, positrons or ions to collide at very high speeds. These collisions generate new particles and phenomena that help us understand how the universe is made, what it is made of and how it evolved. It is thanks to an accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that the Higgs bosonthe particle that “gives mass” to all the others.
The CEPC it will be an accelerator type circulardesigned to collide electrons and positrons. It will be built in a well-long underground tunnel 100 kilometersmuch larger than CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which measures 27 km. According to estimates, i jobs they should start between 2027 and 2028 and they will last about 8-10 yearswith an expected cost of just over 5 billion dollars.
The CEPC will be able to achieve a collision energy of 240 GeV (gigaelectronvolt), to study the Higgs boson and other fundamental processes of particle physics. It will be equipped with two detectors and will be built at approx 100 meters deep. The goal is to create a laboratory capable of producing enormous quantities of Higgs bosons to analyze them with precision never seen before.
The difference between the CEPC in China and Cern’s LHC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERNlocated on the border between Switzerland and France, is currently the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. Use protons for collisions and reached energies up to 13 TeV (teraelectronvolts), much higher than those expected for the CEPC. However, collisions between protons – composed of quarks – generate many fragments that are difficult to analyze. Collisions between electrons and positrons – lighter – allow more precise measurements within the CEPC.
The CEPC will then be complementary to the LHC: less powerful, but more precise. Plus, it will be built faster and on a lower budget than Future Circular Collider (FCC)the European project that should be built right next to the LHC. The aim of FCC is to improve the capabilities of the LHC up to 100 TeV with the acceleration of electrons and protons, within a ring of 100 km in circumference, just like CEPC. The Future Circular Collider (FCC) is scheduled to be built in second half of the 2040s.
