ABSTRACT

Speakers: ICREA Research Professor Andrea Wulzer, from the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) and Prof. Chris Rogers, from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

When: 27th of February 2024, 18:00h

Where: Auditorium FCRI, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona

Abstract:

During the last several decades, experiments at accelerators and colliders with increasing collision energy unveiled a universal description of physical reality in terms of few fundamental particles and interactions. This description incorporates and expands the basic principles of Quantum Mechanics and of Relativity in a theoretical framework known as Quantum Field Theory. It models fundamental physics through a «Standard Model”, which was firmly established in 2013 by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider through the discovery of the Higgs boson.

Particle colliders with higher energy are needed to deepen the investigation of our successful, but incomplete understanding of physical reality. A novel collider concept is being developed, which promises the required jump ahead in energy reach relative to established concepts. This is based on colliding point-like and heavy particles such as the muons.

In these two talks, we will describe the state-of-the-art, the challenges and the future prospects of an ongoing muon collider design program, coordinated by CERN and financed by Europe. We will outline the opportunities and open questions of an integrated research program towards a muon collider in the very diverse areas of theoretical and experimental physics, beam dynamics, accelerator physics and technology.