Future Circular Collider (FCC) Feasibility Study / Accelerator Part

• Ahmad Mashal (ILSF)

Over the last 50 years, particle colliders have been among the main scientific instruments used to understand the most fundamental particles and laws of the Universe. With its 27km circumference, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is currently the most powerful particle collider in the world. The High Luminosity phase (HL-LHC), will increase the machine’s discovery potential with a programme of research up to 2040. But CERN is already thinking beyond the LHC. The future of high-energy physics in the 21st century hinges on designing and building colliders capable of pushing the energy and intensity frontiers by an order of magnitude beyond the present values. The Future Circular Collider (FCC) study explores different collider options, combined into a single research infrastructure built in a 100km underground tunnel, it can offer a solid and diverse physics programme extending beyond the end of the century. A key recommendation of the 2020 update to the European Strategy for Particle Physics is that Europe, in collaboration with the worldwide particle physics community, should undertake a feasibility study for a next-generation hadron collider. As a result, from 2021 to 2027 the Future Circular Collider (FCC) feasibility study is investigating the technical and financial viability of such a facility at CERN. In this talk, I will focus on the accelerator aspects of the FCC feasibility study and highlight the main findings of the report.