Future Circular Collider | CERN

Context:

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) recently published the Feasibility Study Report on the potential Future Circular Collider (FCC).

Future Circular Collider (FCC):

• FCC: Proposed particle collider to succeed CERN’s 27-km Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the 2040s.
• Location: Particle collider ring will be situated along the French-Swiss border and beneath Lake Geneva.
• Budget: Estimated cost of 14 billion Swiss Francs (~ USD 16 billion).
• Aim: To investigate fundamental questions about the universe, including:
  • Nature of dark matter.
  • Origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry.
  • Source of neutrino masses.
• Tunnel Characteristics:
  • Circumference: 90.7 km.
  • Surface Points: 8 (7 in France, 1 in Switzerland).
• Stages of FCC Research Programme:
  • FCC-ee Stage:
    • Electron–positron collider functioning as a Higgs, electroweak, and top-quark factory at varied centre-of-mass energies.
    • Timeline: Operates for 15 years starting mid-2040s.
  • FCC-hh Stage:
    • Proton–proton collider operating at a collision energy of ~ 100 TeV.
    • Timeline: Operates for 25 years starting in the 2070s.
• Significance:
  • Innovation in cryogenics, super-conducting magnets, vacuum technologies, etc.
  • Investigating the Higgs boson and other fundamental particles.
  • Offers unmatched precision, sensitivity, and energy reach.
  • Capabilities:
    • Higher luminosity.
    • Infrastructure support for future hadron colliders.

European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN)

• Establishment: Founded in 1954; resolution adopted at the UNESCO intergovernmental meeting in Paris (December 1951).
• Location: Laboratory located on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva.
• Membership: One of Europe’s first joint ventures; currently has 23 member states.
• Area of Research: Focused on particle physics.
• Instruments:
  • Purpose-built particle accelerators and detectors.
  • Accelerators: Boost particle beams to high energies for collision.
  • Detectors: Observe and record collision outcomes.
• Host:
  • Large Hadron Collider (LHC):
    • World’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
    • Features a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with structures to boost particle energy.
    • Replaced the earlier electron–positron collider (LEP) from the 1980s.
    • Beams collide at four locations around the ring, corresponding to detectors: ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb.
• Other Experiments:
  • Research on antimatter, cosmic rays, alternative accelerators, advanced magnets, and medical isotopes.
• Discovery of the Higgs Boson (2012):
  • First direct evidence of the Higgs field, which permeates the universe.
  • Explained how fundamental particles interact with the Higgs field, resulting in varying masses.

Source: The Hindu

---

Previous Year Question

Consider the following actions:
1. Detection of car crash/collision which results in the deployment of airbags almost instantaneously.
2. Detection of accidental free fall of a laptop towards the ground which results in the immediate turning off of the hard drive
3. Detection of the tit of smartphone which results in the rotation of display between portrait and landscape mode

In how many of the above action is the function of accelerometer required? 

[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2023 Prelims]

(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) All three
(d) None

Answer: (c)

---