Could the Hadron Collider get a big brother?

30 Jul 2010

When it was first unveiled scientists claimed that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland would unravel the secrets of how the universe began but now scientists have revealed that they want to build a new even bigger collider.

The LHC at CERN currently whirls particles around a large ring before banging them together in a bid to find the allusive Higgs boson, which is known as the "God Particle" because if found it will support the Big Bang theory, as well as testing various predictions of high-energy physics.
One theory which aims to explain how the Universe works predicts that the Higgs boson gives matter its mass and if discovered, it could pave the way towards a unification of the theories of quantum and general relativity.

However, scientists working on the LHC have said they want to build the next generation of collider. Particle physicists, who gathered in Paris yesterday for the most important conference in their field, say a linear atom blaster want to build the new collider in a 31-mile tunnel called the International Linear Collider (ILC).

The idea of the new collider would be to explore discoveries in the LHC further and according to the ILC webpage "with LHC discoveries pointing the way, the ILC – a true precision machine – will provide the missing pieces of the puzzle."

And if it goes ahead it will be a worldwide project too with a number of countries funding the estimated $10 billion it will take to build the new collider. It's also predicted that it will take around 15 years to complete.

The $7 billion LHC was launched with great fanfare in September 2008 but was subject to a number of problems. However, back in November it was restarted and since then, the collider has reported a series of successes.

Paddy Power is currently taking bets on what the LHC will find in 2010. They have odds of 11/10 that they will find Dark Matter, 8/1 on Black Holes, 12/1 that they will find Dark Energy and 100/1  that the collider would find God.