China Could Begin Construction Of World’s Largest Particle Collider In Three Years

Construction of the world’s largest particle collider could begin in China in the next three years. Dubbed Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC), the project could cost 36 billion yuan (US$5 billion) and ten years to make, a South China Morning Post (SCMP) report said. Government approval for the project is, however, pending.

The Standard Model is how scientists try to explain the world around us. However, this theoretical model fails to explain the fundamental force of gravity and little-known phenomena like dark matter and dark energy. To delve deeper into the structure of the atoms, scientists have turned to particle colliders.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) built by CERN uses protons and heavy ions in its experiments. In 2012, the setup discovered the Higgs boson, God’s particle, which gives atomic particles their mass. Soon afterward, the construction of the CEPC was proposed in China. Still, the project has not received the final approval to begin construction.

What do we know about CEPC?

The CEPC project intends to work with electrons and positrons – their antiparticles- to understand their true nature. The experiments will be conducted in a 62-mile (100 km) tunnel where the electrons and positrons can be accelerated to extremely high energies before smashing them. In comparison, the tunnel CERN uses measures 16.6 miles (26.7 km).

These experiments at CEPC are expected to create millions of Higgs bosons, also earning the project the moniker Higgs factory. Last December, the project released its “technical design report,” compiled over five years. This involved the work of over 1,000 scientists from 24 countries and also passed an international review.

The report also included details of numerous prototypes of particle colliders built by China and several experiments that were run in the past decade. If built, the project would help China raise its position as a world leader in high-energy physics, experts told the SCMP.

Too expensive to build?

The project has also received negative feedback from Nobel Prize winner Chen Ning Yang. In 2016, scientists publicly questioned the need to build a collider in China when facing other challenges, such as economic development and environmental protection.

According to Yang, the 36 billion yuan price tag of the CEPC particle collider was too much. The Nobel laureate pointed out that the experiment is a bottomless pit and could end up like the Superconducting Super Collider in the US that Congress enacted in the 1990s.

Wang Yifang, the director of the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing, who originally proposed the CEPC project, believes that the cost is not too much since it will support the work of thousands of scientists over multiple decades in China.

It is unclear when the project will be submitted to China’s economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, for approval. The technical design report suggests that the funding for the project will be raised through a mix of national and local government spending as well as contributions from international partners.

According to Wang, the CEPC is now entering the engineering design phase, where components of the collider will be mass-produced, and the performance and cost-effectiveness of the project will be optimized.

The site for the project hasn’t been finalized yet, but three locations have been shortlisted. Work on the construction could begin by 2027, according to Wang.

In Europe, CERN also has plans to build the Future Circular Collider. This project matches the expanse of the CEPC and is projected to cost US$23 billion, the SCMP added in its report.