Report on the FCC Week 2017 in Berlin
The 3rd meeting of the worldwide Future Circular Collider (FCC week 2017) brought together more than 500 leading minds in engineering and science from 147 institutes to discuss the progress of the present study and lay the foundations for the FCC design report. The increasing numbers reflect the attractiveness of the project and the diversity of the scientific challenges offered by this large-scale research infrastructure.
The accelerators envisioned under the FCC study could test the Standard Model to its limits and shed light on the dark content of the Universe. The FCC study explores different plans for energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh) and luminosity-frontier lepton collider (FCC-ee). In addition, a hadron-lepton collider (FCC-he) could add to the diverse scientific programme of a future large-scale research infrastructure.
During the FCC week the progress in all aspects of the study, from accelerator to detectors and experiments including the technological R&D developments and infrastructure were reviewed. As Michael Benedikt, the FCC study leader, noted: “In the past years we studied in depth the parameters of future colliders that will push the energy and intensity frontiers. We now have a very good understanding of all the parameters that enter in building and operating these machines in line with the physics motivation for them.”
Building and operating these large-scale research infrastructures in an efficient and reliable way poses certain challenges for scientists working in different fields. Significant advances in superconducting magnets, in SRF technologies and RF power sources and other key technologies have been made since the beginning of the study. The 16 Tesla magnets remain one of the most challenging aspects of a future hadron-hadron collider along with the development of superconducting wires with performance exceeding that of present state-of-the-art materials.
Another critical element of FCC-hh is the cryogenic beam vacuum system that has to cope with unprecedented levels of synchrotron radiation while providing an ultrahigh vacuum. A prototype of the beam screen has been produced and is scheduled to undergo its first radiation tests at the ANKA synchrotron in early June, signalling a major milestone in the development of the FCC technology.
The meeting saw new reference designs for future experiments both in future proton-proton and lepton-lepton circular colliders. Consensus exists that the next generation of detectors will have to surpass the achievements of the LHC experiments and cope with the challenges of energy and intensity colliders. This is not a trivial task but, learning from the LHC experiments and other detector concepts and exploiting recent technological advances, scientists made meaningful progress.
Along with progress in accelerator and detector design there has been substantial development on the civil engineering studies for a future large-scale research infrastructure. The new layout defines an overall tunnel length of 97.75 km compatible with the CERN accelerator complex and the geographical conditions in the area.
Similarly to the previous FCC meetings, special focus was given in public engagement and outreach activities. “Small particles, big machines” was the theme of the public hands-on exhibition that ran in parallel to the FCC Week 2017. The aim of the exhibition was to bring the science and technology of particle physics and particle accelerators. closer to the public In addition, the FCC Innovation awards were presented, celebrating the most exciting technological and scientific developments in the collaboration.
Participants in the FCC Week 2017 renewed their commitment to 2018 in Amsterdam. The meeting will review the feasibility, the available technological options and costs for future circular colliders. This will be a key meeting before the presentation of the conceptual design report, in time for the next update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics in 2019.
