China built the world's largest particle accelerator

China is about to build a 100km long particle accelerator, which is expected to create more than a million "God's seeds" in the first 10 years of operation.

Researchers working on the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) project share two new designs after the construction plan was first published in 2012, Global News reported yesterday. According to the report of the team, the machine can produce 1 million Higgs boson particles, also known as "God's seeds" , 100 million W boson particles and 1,000 billion Z boson particles.

Picture 1 of China built the world's largest particle accelerator
One of the two designs of the CEPC particle accelerator.(Photo: Global Times).

With a length of 100km, CEPC is nearly four times larger than the European Nuclear Research Organization (CERN), located below the surface at the French-Swiss border with a circumference of less than 27km. CEPC also has a round shape similar to LHC. The machine will be in an underground tunnel, consisting of a linear accelerator, shock absorber, accelerator, path and collision ring. The machine takes the form of a ring-ring accelerator, with electron beams and positrons moving circles in opposite directions in separate tubes.

The tunnel where the machine is located can also be used to accommodate the Super proton proton Collider Collider (SppC), a proposal being considered. This super-accelerator can reach energy levels far beyond the LHC. The LHC is designed for maximum collision energy of 14 TeV while SppC will operate with 70 TeV energy.

"We have completed the basic design of accelerators, detectors and civil engineering for the entire project," said Professor Gao Yuanning, chairman of the CEPC Council. "The next step is to focus on researching and developing key techniques and prototypes for CEPC". The design report was published at a ceremony organized by the High Energy Physics Institute (IHEP) in Beijing.

In the next 5 years, scientists will conduct general research, build prototype of technical parts of CEPC. Infrastructure for accelerators will also be built. As expected, the construction of CEPC will begin in 2022 and complete in 2030. If CEPC is successfully operated, the research team hopes that the SppC super-accelerator can also be put into operation in 2030.