Closing in on CERN's future: the most significant proposals discussed in Nature Physics focus issue

摘要

A recent focus issue of Nature Physics [Nat. Phys. 16, 369 (2020)] covers the ongoing decision-making process, a collegial exercise known as the European Strategy of Particle Physics Update (ESPPU) that aims to identify the projects with the highest scientific impact for recommendation to CERN's decision-making body, the CERN Council. The focus issue highlights the most prominent proposals in detail: the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC), an expandable linear accelerator, up to 50 km long, that relies on a novel two-beam acceleration concept, colliding electrons with positrons at energies between 380 GeV and 3 TeV, and the Future Circular Collider (FCC), a circular accelerator of 100 km circumference initially foreseen for electron-positron collisions at 91-365 GeV and later upgradable to a proton-proton collider to explore physics far beyond the Higgs sector, at about 100 TeV. The focus issue also discusses proposals using methods other than high-energy-frontier colliders to advance on main open issues in particle physics and reviews the world-wide engagement, highlighting the synergy between CERN's future commitments and planned projects in Japan, China, and the United States.