For almost a decade, China has been discussing whether it should build the biggest collider in the world. Recently, Eliezer Rabinovici, a distinguished physicist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and currently serving as the president of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), has joined the discussion about whether China can build the biggest collider ever.
During a recent visit to China, Rabinovici expressed his firm belief in China’s capability to embark on such an ambitious endeavor, affirming, “Chinese scientists can build this machine.”
Rabinovici’s statement makes China’s goal of outdoing existing particle accelerator records even more important.
With this we can speak about China’s proposed 36 billion yuan ($5 billion) CEPC project that has captured global attention. Planned to be a “Higgs factory,” this huge collider would be much bigger than CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), with a massive 100km circumference.
By generating millions of Higgs bosons through high-energy collisions, this project aims to discover new information about particle physics like never before. The project is led by Wang Yifang, who has also worked with Nobel laureate Samuel Chao Chung Ting at CERN.
However, the CEPC project has stirred debate within China’s scientific community. Legendary physicist Yang Chen-Ning, a Nobel laureate, has spoken out against the project, expressing doubts about the necessity of constructing a supercollider, suggesting that it wasn’t a priority for China then. He argued that the nation should focus on pressing issues like economic growth and environmental conservation instead.
But Rabinovici disagrees and says that Yang, like many others, “underestimated the capability that exists here in China.”
“Over the years, many Chinese physicists have worked at CERN and have gained some knowledge and experience. These people are very capable,” Rabinovici added.
The CERN president also mentioned that the CEPC project has the backing of thousands of scientists worldwide, including the United States and Europe, who “strongly believe that this is a good project that is worth doing.”
Calling it a “bottomless pit,” Yang has also pointed out that the project would “would squeeze funding for other urgent social issues and other areas of science.”
However, another physicist disagreed, saying that China had enough money for the project. The real challenge is using the science funds wisely. He thinks a lot of money is wasted on different projects already.
In a March interview with the Global Times, Wang highlighted that if the CEPC could facilitate the research of thousands of scientists for many years, the average cost wouldn’t be excessive.
As the CEPC project waits for the government’s final decision, Wang Yifang, who also serves as the director of the Institute of High Energy Physics, is hopeful about the project and informed that construction is planned to start in three years, marking a big step forward for science in China.
It is to be mentioned that the CEPC’s technical design report, compiled by more than 1,000 scientists from 24 nations over five years, was well-received internationally and by the physics community upon its release in December.
