China recently announced its plans to build a particle collider roughly twice the size of the Large Hadron Collider, also known as the LHC. At 27 kilometers in circumference, the LHC is currently the largest particle collider in the world. It is now capable of producing collision energies of 13 TeV, a record in the field of high energy physics. In 2012, the LHC made worldwide headlines after announcing its discovery of the Higgs Boson. Ultimately, particle colliders help to reinforce our understanding of particles and their interactions, as well as to discover new particle physics. In some sense, bigger is better in particle physics — after all, bigger particle colliders can probe higher energy scales by producing more energetic collisions. And as China looks forward to 2020, when it will begin constructing its behemoth collider, the United States is uncertain about the future of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, its “last major particle collider.” Instead of wavering on the future of particle physics in the country, the United States should invest in the future of high energy physics and build its own LHC-scale particle collider.
As it so happens, the United States almost did build its own super collider — the Superconducting Super Collider — in the early 1980s. At a planned 87.1 kilometers in circumference, it was to produce a collision energy of 20 TeV. In 1992, however, the House of Representatives voted to stop funding the half-completed collider. Had it been completed, though, some scientists argue the United States might have discovered the Higgs Boson. After all, the collider would have been operational before the LHC and was planned to produce higher collision energies. Instead, headlines such as “Europe Overtakes U.S. in Particle Physics Pursuing God Particle” circulated after the Higgs Boson discovery, making clear Europe’s elevated place in the field of high energy physics. It only begs the question: What new physics will the United States take a back seat in discovering?
Not only did the United States stop its progress toward the Superconducting Super Collider, but it also shut down Fermilab’s Tevatron accelerator, once the second most powerful particle accelerator in the world, in 2011. Unfortunately, this drove home the fact that the United States is not willing to emphasize in-house high energy physics. This is not representative of any disinterest in particle physics in the U.S. scientific community. In fact, 1,700 U.S. scientists are involved with present-day LHC research, highlighting both a lively international collaboration and an arguably unfortunate external use of our country’s scientific minds. In addition, the United States contributed $531 million to the construction of the LHC. However, in 2017 U.S. involvement as an “observer” at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, will end. Then, CERN Director General Rolf Dieter-Heuer hopes the United States will pay $25 million per year to become an “associate member.” This is by no means in line with the United States’ stature in the world of research. As Prof. Craig Group, a high energy physicist here at the University of Virginia, points out, the United States is a world leader in physics. If U.S. involvement in the field starts to wane, he wonders, what will become of high energy physics?
Particle physics also directly contributes to technological progress and economic benefits. A massive particle collider is sure to create jobs for physicists, technicians, engineers, construction workers and computer scientists. The contracts involved with constructing would be large, and the area (even the entire state) chosen to host the collider would reap the enormous economic benefits. The world of technology is sure to benefit from particle physics discoveries as it has in the past. For example, in his testimony to Congress advocating for Fermilab’s first particle accelerator, Dr. R.R. Wilson attributes the advent of nuclear energy, “the klystron of the linac at Stanford, the vacuum pumps for the early cyclotron research, and the high-frequency oscillator tubes which were so valuable during the war, (and) computer techniques” to developments stemming from nuclear accelerators. These developments were in progress during the time of his speech in 1969. And with benefits so tangible in the past, it is certainly reasonable to assume the same physics further explored will lead to even more technological developments.
For these reasons alone, the investment in a particle collider is worth it. However, there exists an intangible notion of discovery and place in the universe that particle physics directly feeds into. The more we learn about the particles, the ingredients of the world around us, the more we learn about ourselves. It’s an innately fulfilling thought. China and Europe recognize and fully accommodate the need for particle physics, but where is the United States? As a military and research world leader alike, the United States has significant sway on the future of science. Its contributions or lack thereof to a field certainly shape it, and there is no reason the United States shouldn’t be fully involved in the frontier of particle science: high energy physics.
Gage DeZoort is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at g.dezoort@cavalierdaily.com.
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