The Future Circular Collider - a waste of money?

[publiusr]

That's called Coast-to-Coast AM

 

[WarpFactorZ]

As a successor to the LHC, it has been proposed to build a €20+ billion collider that would be about four times the circumference of the LHC. Even with a collision energy of 100 TeV (10^14 eV) rather than 14 TeV, there's no guarantee that any supersymmetric particles, axions, or other new physics will be discovered. Spread over 20 years or so, the cost isn't that high but if nothing new were found, I think it would cast high energy physics in a a bad light publicly as a sort of boondongle to keep researchers in jobs. 10^14 eV is about 6 orders of magnitude less than the highest energy cosmic rays. Where should we draw the line on trying to reach ever higher energies here on Earth?

Don't listen to the likes of Sabine Hossenfelder! We should never stop looking for new Physics, $$$ be damned. It will not make particle physics look bad. That's just silly. Sure, the FCC will be costly, but compare this to the cost of LIGO over the years, or the Event Horizon Telescope, or even the Apollo Program! Yes, ultra-high energy cosmic rays provide a window into the PeV range, and there's nothing stopping us from looking there too.

The FCC will happen, in some form or another, in some country or another. If I was a betting persona, I'd say China will build their supercollider first (they have the PR backing of Nima Arkani-Hamed, after all).

 

[StarCruiser]

I haven't weighed in on this one yet...

Science, for science's sake is always worth the effort. Even if nothing groundbreaking comes of it - the effort usually answers some old questions - and brings forth new ones to pursue.

 

[Santaman]

I guess that even if it fails all the experience in building the various kinds of equipment, mechanical, elecronical, powersuply, magnetical etc etc ect would already be worth its weight in gold.

 

[SPCTRE]

Don't listen to the likes of Sabine Hossenfelder! We should never stop looking for new Physics, $$$ be damned.

Sabine Hossenfelder is not suggesting that "we" should "stop looking for new physics" though