China will build a super-collider, twice the size of the LHC

Large Hadron Collider (photo: CERN)

The People's Republic of China approved a project to create an underground super-collider , whose dimensions will be twice the size of the LHC, and working energies will be seven times higher than the maximum threshold for the LHC. The main purpose of the super-collider is a detailed study of the “particle of God”, that is, the Higgs boson. The Chinese system will be able to generate millions of these and other microparticles. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2020.

The final project plan will be ready by the end of next year, said Wang Yifang, head of the High Energy Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the PRC. At the same time, most of the project already exists in the form of drawings, since the preparation has been going on for a long time - from 2013, since the discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC. Last year, it was announced that the colider’s circumference would be 52 kilometers, and the working energy - 240 gigaelectronvolts.


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The construction site was also determined - scientists suggested building a system in the vicinity of the city of Qinhuangdao (Qinhuangdao). The choice of location is symbolic, since it was from here that the construction of the Great Wall of China was once begun. A much more important factor that determined the choice of the place of construction was the peculiarities of the geological structure of the region, the climate, and the presence of two universities in the city.

Now the budgets of most scientific organizations in different countries are being cut, priority is given to short-term projects that promise to give results here and immediately. China, however, acts differently, investing huge amounts of money in projects that will produce results in the distant future. This applies to both theoretical research and practical science. Such actions, which is quite likely, will lead China to leadership positions in several areas of science at once.

As for the super-collider, the Chinese consider it a global project. "This car is for the whole world, it is not only Chinese," says Wong Yifang. The project is being implemented not only by Chinese scientists, but also by foreign specialists.