The Feasibility Study Report assessing the feasibility of a possible Future Circular Collider (FCC) has been published recently.

• Launched: The FCC Feasibility Study was launched following the recommendations of the 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics and will serve as input for the ongoing update of the Strategy,
• Published By: The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)  

About The Future Circular Collider (FCC)

• The FCC is a proposed particle collider that could succeed CERN’s current flagship instrument ie. the 27-km Large Hadron Collider (LHC)  in the 2040s.
• Location: The particle collider ring will be placed along the French-Swiss border and below Lake Geneva
• Budget: The project is being planned at a cost of some 14 billion Swiss Francs (about USD 16 billion).
• Aim: The collider is aiming to explore fundamental questions about the universe, including the nature of dark matter, the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the source of neutrino masses etc.
• Tunnel Characteristics: 
  • Circumference: The tunnels circumference will be 90.7 km
  • Surface Points: The tunnel will have 8 surface points (7 in France, 1 in Switzerland)
• Stages: FCC research programme outlines two possible stages
  • FCC-ee Stage: It is an electron–positron collider serving as a Higgs, electroweak and top-quark factory running at different centre-of-mass energies
    • Timeline: It will operate for about 15 years from the mid-2040s
  • FCC-hh Stage: It is a later stage proton–proton collider operating at an unprecedented collision energy of around 100 TeV
    • Timeline: It will operate for 25 years from the 2070s
• Significance: 
  • New Technologies: The FCC promises scientific discoveries that could drive innovation in fields like cryogenics, super-conducting magnets and vacuum technologies etc.
  • Exploring Beyond the Standard Model: The FCC will go beyond the current Standard Model of particle physics by investigating the Higgs boson and other fundamental particles and forces, potentially leading to the discovery of new particles and phenomena.
  • Higgs Boson: The FCC will allow for a more precise study of the Higgs boson, including its interactions with other particles, which is crucial for understanding how particles gain mass and the structure of the universe
  • High Precision and Sensitivity: The FCC will offer unprecedented precision, sensitivity, and energy reach, enabling scientists to explore new physics and test existing theories with greater accuracy.
  • The collider enables significantly higher luminosity and up to four experiments, while also offering the infrastructure for a subsequent hadron collider.