A Linear Collider in the Works
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), one of the most important constructions for modern science, still has years of research and updates ahead, but the minds at CERN are already imagining, thinking, and designing what could be its successor. The name assigned is CLIC, short for Compact Linear Collider, and unlike the oval format of its older brother, CLIC would have a linear design, through a tunnel 44 kilometers long.
In April 2015, the LHC resumed its operations after having "rested" for two years to receive updates that allowed it to reach a not-to-be-scoffed-at 13 TeV. Among future plans, we find additional updates that in theory will enable the collider to operate at its maximum capacity of 14 TeV in 2017 or 2018, and later (2022 to be precise) it would receive what experts call the "high luminosity upgrade". Either way, the LHC has its hands full at least until the year 2025, with an extension of ten more years on the table, however, that does not prevent the masterminds at CERN from thinking about what could be the successor to the LHC. Its name? CLIC.
A Global Effort with a Competitor
The Compact Linear Collider is not precisely a new idea, and if we follow the official information available, more than 40 institutions in 22 countries participate in the project. Another very interesting fact is that it has a kind of "competitor", the International Linear Collider (ILC), which if approved could be located in Japan, the US Fermilab, or CERN itself. Even so, CLIC has a very important advantage, which is operating at higher energy levels (3 TeV for CLIC versus 1 TeV for ILC). Other technical details reveal that CLIC would consist of a tunnel 44 kilometers long, contrary to the LHC which resembles an oval.
Why Another Collider?
Why is another collider needed when the LHC is in such good shape and has so much work ahead? In very relaxed terms that would make any scientist hit me with a physics book on the head, the LHC is a proton-proton collider, which "reduces precision" in a certain way for measurements of elementary particles. In contrast, CLIC is an electron-positron collider, and with energy levels on the order of 3 TeV and a specially optimized design, the data obtained would be much more precise. Of course, construction of CLIC will not be considered at least until the year 2020, and if we talk about costs, only its first phase would be 50 percent more expensive than that of the LHC. Perhaps things will change in a few years, but it is a project to watch closely.
