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Future Particle Colliders and the Collider Blunders
Dr. Jay Maron

Particle physics is starved for data. It needs a bigger collider. The options are a proton ring collider, an electron ring collider, and an electron linear collider.

Linear collider
Ring collider (Fermilab)

In a ring collider, particles circulate in both directions and are arranged to collide head-on.

In a linear electron collider, electrons start at one end and positrons start at the other end, and both are accelerated toward the center and arranged to collide head-on.

Linear and ring colliders have contrasting strengths and weaknesses.

A proton collider can reach higher energy than an electron collider.

Electron-positron collisions give more precise data than proton-proton collisions.

An electron ring collider has a maximum energy of .5 TeV, above which electrons lose energy to synchrotron radiation. Energies beyond this require a linear collider. Proton ring colliders don't have the synchrotron problem and can be arbitrarily large.

A linear electron collider that is longer than 100 km has to follow the Earth's curvature, and the synchrotron limit is 23 TeV.

In an electron-positron collision, if the electron energy is X, then the maximum energy of a particle that the collision can create is X. For proton-proton collisions, the maximum energy of a created particle is less, on the order of X/7.

A linear collider can be built incrementally, increasing its length and energy. A ring collider can't be made larger. However, you can use an existing ring collider as an injector for a bigger collider. A hypothetical strategy is to build a .175 TeV electron linear collider to study the top quark and Higgs boson, and then extend it.

Linear colliders have many uses, such as as an x-ray laser.


Collider blunders

The CERN Large Electron Positron collider blundered because the tunnel wasn't wide enough for multiple rings. It started with an electron ring that ran for a decade, and then was dismantled for a proton ring (LHC). Had it been wide enough for more rings, The LHC could have been made a decade sooner. Also, HERA would have been unnecessary. HERA collides protons and electrons.

The Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) made this blunder. The tunnel had a proton ring and wasn't wide enough for an electron ring. An electron ring would have discovered the Higgs sooner.

The SSC blundered by building the main ring before the injector ring. When it was cancelled, 1/4 of the main tunnel was done. It could have instead finished an injector tunnel and started operating at injector energy. The SSC injector is the same size as the LHC.

CERN blundered because nearby mountains limit ring radius to 16 km. The Texas site for the SSC can have a radius up to 50 km. Also, the Texas site is soft rock that's easily tunneled.

Fermilab blundered because the money could have been spent on the Super Proton Synchrotron. SPS was built before Fermilab and both are the same size. Fermilab has higher energy because of stronger magnets. The Fermilab magnets could have been used for SPS.

It was a blunder to not build a bigger electron linear collider after SLAC. Such a collider would have discovered the W, Z, Bottom, Top, and Higgs. An electron linear collider and a proton ring collider should be built on the same site, and the site should be expandable to extremely large colliders. A linear collider can be built in stages whereas a ring collider requires that the entire tunnel be done.

The synchrotron limit for electrons from Earth surface curvature is 23 TeV.

CERN is planning the Future Circular Collider, which will be 4 times larger than the Large Hadron Collider. It will have a wide tunnel to host both a proton ring and an electron ring. The FCC will be the biggest it can be. Mountains stop it from being bigger.

The SSC was cancelled because of mismanagement. The tunnel access shafts were spiked to stop future work, making an electron collider impossible.

Device                          Type    Particle      Energy   Radius  Magnet  Year   Particles discovered
                                                       GeV       km    Tesla   built

High-voltage vacuum tube                Electron, proton   .0001  -      -     1859   Electron 1859  Proton 1886  X-ray   1895  Photon  1914  Isotopes 1932
Alpha decay, uranium or radium          Alpha              .0047  -      -     1896   Alpha    1896  Gamma  1900  Nucleus 1911  Neutron 1932
Cosmic ray & cloud chamber              Proton           10       -      -     1932   Positron 1932  Muon   1932  Pion+   1947  Kaon+   1947  Kaon0 1947  Lambda0 1950  Neutrino oscillations 1998
Berkeley 60" Cyclotron                  Proton             .016   .00076 1.7   1939   Pion0    1950
Fission reactor                         Electron neutrino  .002   -      -     1942   Electron neutrino 1956
Brookhaven Lab Cosmotron        Ring    Proton            3.3     .0115  1.5   1953   Muon neutrino 1962
Berkeley Bevatron               Ring    Proton            6.2     .0152  -     1954   Antiproton 1955  Eta meson 1961
Stanford Linear Accelerator     Linear  Electron         45      3.2     -     1966   Up 1968  Down 1968  Strange 1968  Charm 1974  Tau 1975  D meson 1976
DESY DORIS                      Ring    Electron          5       .046         1974   Gluon 1978
Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS)  Ring    Proton          450      1.1     2.0   1976   W- 1983  Z 1983  CP violation 1999
Fermilab                        Ring    Proton         1000      1.0     4.4   1986   Bottom 1977  Top 1995  Tau neutrino 2000  Lambda+ baryon 1974
Large Electron Positron  (LEP)  Ring    Electron        104      4.3     -     1989
Superconducting Supercollider   Ring    Proton        20000     13.9     6.6   Abandoned in 1993
Large Hadron Collider    (LHC)  Ring    Proton         6500      4.3     8.3   2011   Higgs 2013
Future Circular Collider        Ring    Proton        50000     16      16     Future
Future Circular Collider        Ring    Electron        175     16       -     Future
Compact Linear Collider         Linear  Electron       1500     30       -     Future
Superconducting Supercollider+  Ring    Proton       150000     43      16     Future
Superconducting Supercollider+  Ring    Electron        250     43       -     Future

For a linear collider, "radius" is half the length.

Protons start at the SPS, then inject to the LHC, then inject to the FCC.

The FCC will have 2 electron rings, one at maximum energy for collisions and another to inject the collision ring. Alternatively, the injector might be linear.

Tunnels:

                     Diameter (meter)   Rings

Super Proton Synchrotron    4.1           2    Proton + Proton
Fermilab                    3.1           1    Proton + Antiproton
Large Electron-Positron     3.8           1    Electron + Antielectron
Large Hadron Collider       3.8           2    Proton + Proton
Future Circular Collider    5.5           3    Proton + Proton,  Electron + Antielectron
Superconduct Supercollider  4.3           2    Proton + Proton
HERA                        5.2           2    Proton + Electron

Particle energy

Particle diameter is proportional to Mass1/3.

The electron is exaggerated otherwise it would be invisible.

Blue particles represent the heaviest particle that can be produced by the accelerator.

At this scale, a Planck-mass particle has a diameter of 10 km.

Photons, Gluons, and Gravitons are massless.

The LHC is far from the Planck energy.


Linear colliders

Stanford Linear Accelerator
Stanford Linear Accelerator

The energy of a linear accelerator is determined by length and force. The maximum force is .023 TeV/km using klystrons and .1 TeV/km using the dual-beam technique. To discover new physics, the energy has to be larger than 1 TeV. A 1 TeV accelerator based on the dual-beam technique has a length of 10 km.

Accelerator length  = X       = 10   km
Force               = F       =   .1 TeV/km
Electron energy     = E = X F =  1   TeV

Ring colliders

A small ring collider
Fermilab bending magnet
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN

In a ring collider, magnets steer protons around the ring. Ring colliders can add energy to particles each pass around the ring, and so they aren't limited by force. It's like spinning up a merry-go-round. Ring colliders are limited instead by the strength of the bending magnets. For the Large Hadron Collider,

Magnetic field strength  =  B                 =    5.4  Tesla (average field)
Radius of the ring       =  R                 = 4300    meters
Maximum particle energy  =  E  =  .00030 B R  =    7.0  TeV

Earth-sized linear collider

If an electron linear collider is long enough, it has to curve with the Earth's surface, and this limits the energy to 23 TeV. You can get to 30 TeV by having a straight section just before the collision.

You can make a long straight tunnel using mountains and by digging deep. The tunnel starts deep and ends at a mountain.

The deepest mines have a depth of 4 km and mountain ranges have a height of order 6 km, and this allows one to build a straight tunnel 100 km long.

The average thermal gradient of the Earth is 25 Celsius per km of depth. The deepest mines are:

                     Depth   Rock temperature
                      km         Celsius

Mponeng Gold Mine     4.0          66        South Africa
TauTona Gold Mine     3.9          60        South Africa
Savuka Gold Mine      3.7                    South Africa
Driefontein Mine      3.4                    South Africa

Synchrotron radiation

Particles moving straight don't emit synchrotron radiation
Curving electrons emit lots of synchrotron radiation
Curving protons emit negligible synchrotron radiation

An accelerating charged particle emits photons (synchrotron radiation). Particles traveling around a ring emit photons and lose energy. The larger the collider, the larger the particle energy and the larger the synchrotron loss rate. A ring collider can only be made so large before synchrotron loss exceeds energy gain from acceleration.

The synchrotron radiation power is

Particle energy              =  E
Particle rest energy         =  Erest
Ring radius                  =  R
Synchrotron radiation power  =  P  ~  (E/Erest)4 / R2

   Erest (Proton)
-------------------  =  1836
  Erest (Electron)
Electrons have a smaller rest energy than protons and emit vastly more synchrotron radiation. An electron ring collider is limited by synchrotron radiation rather than by magnet strength. The maximum energy is .15 TeV. Generating electron energies larger than this requires a linear collider.

Protons emit negligible synchrotron radiation and the radiation is never a concern. Proton ring colliders are limited by magnet strength rather than by synchtrotron radiation.

Future colliders will consist of proton ring colliders and linear electron colliders.


Maximum energy of a ring collider
Particle energy            =  E (TeV)
Particle velocity          =  V
Speed of light             =  C
Particle charge            =  1.602e-19 Coulombs
Magnetic field             =  B (Teslas)     Magnet strength averaged around the ring
Collider radius            =  R
Particle rest mass         =  m
Particle relativistic mass =  M
Electric force constant    =  K  =  8.988⋅109 Newton meter2 / Coulomb2
Electric force on a charge =  Fe =  q E
Magnetic force on a charge =  Fm =  q V B
Centripetal force          =  Fc =  M V2 / R
Particles in a collider are "ultrarelativistic" and so we may assume:
M  >>  m
V  ~  C
E  ~  M C2
Particles are steered around the ring by magnets
Magnetic force   =   Centripetal force
q B V            =   M V2 / R
q B              =   E / (C R)

E  =  q C B R

E  =  .00030 B R   (Energy in TeV)
The maximum energy of a ring collider is determied by the magnetic field and the ring radius.

Magnets are a finicky technology and thus far the LHC magnets are not at full strength. The current proton energy is 4 TeV and an energy of 6.5 TeV is expected in 2015.

The Lorentz factor of a 7 TeV proton is   γ = E/(mC) = 7460 = 7 TeV / .000938 TeV


Ring colliders and synchrotron radiation

If a charged particle is accelelerated it emits photons (synchrotron radiation). Particles in a ring collider emit synchrotron radiation when they are bent by the magnetic field.

Particle energy               =  E
Particle rest energy          =  Eo
Particle charge               =  q
Particle velocity             =  V
Speed of light                =  C
Electric force constant       =  K  =  8.988⋅109 Newton meter2 / Coulomb2
Collider radius               =  R
Synchrotron power             =  P  =  (2C/3) K q2 (V/C)4 (E/Eo)4 R-2
Decelerating synchrotron force=  Fs =  P/V       (Joules/meter)
Synch. energy loss / cycle    =  Es =  (2πR/V) P        Energy lost to synch. each ring trip
                                    =  (4πC/3V) K q2 (V/C)4 (E/Eo)4 R-1
                                    ~  (4π/3) K q2 (E/Eo)4 / R          (Using V ~ C)
Fraction energy lost per cycle=  Q  =  Es / E
Collider maximum energy       =  Emax
In order for a ring to be effective it must have Q << 1. If Q >= 1 then you might as well build a linear collider. For a given collider radius R the synchrotron energy limit is
Emax  =  Es / Q  =  (4/3 πKq2/Q) (Emax/Eo)4 R-1 Q-1
                 =  (4/3 πKq2/Q)-1/3 Eo4/3 R1/3
The CERN ring has R = 4243 meters. If we set Q=1 we get the following energies:
            Eo           Emax
           (TeV)        (TeV)

Electron   .000511        .27
Muon       .106        325
Proton     .938       5961
When the CERN ring housed the Large Electron Positron collider (LEP) it operated at an energy of .104 TeV. The ring was subsequently converted to a proton collider with an energy of 7 TeV. Proton synchrotron radiation is negligible at this energy.
Ring collider size limit
The energy limit from synchrotron radiation has the form:    E  ~  R1/3
The energy limit from the bending magnets has the form:      E  ~  B R
When these are equal, the energy and radius are "Er" and "Rr".
If  R < Rr  then E is limited by the strength of the magnets
If  R > Rr  then E is limited by synchrotron radiation
If we set B = 10 Tesla and Q = 1 we get
              Er (TeV)      Rr
Electron        .061        20 meters
Muon            2630       880 km
Proton        207000     69000 km  =  11 Earth radii
An electron collider larger than 20 meters is limited by synchrotron radiation.

Any proton or muon collider that could conceivably be built on the Earth is limited by the bending magnets rather than by synchrotron radiation.


Proton collider

In a collider, a particle "X" collides with its antiparticle "x" and they annihilate to create a new particle-antiparticle pair Y and y.

X  +  x    -->   Y  +  y
The maximum rest mass of the Y particle is equal to the energy of the X particle. Hence, a collider that collides 1 TeV electrons with 1 TeV antielectrons can produce particles with a rest mass of up to 1 TeV.

Protons consist of three quarks. In a proton collision, new particles are produced by collisions between individual quarks. Since each quark carries only a fraction of the proton's total energy, not all of the proton's energy can be used to make new particles. At Fermilab, protons have an energ of 1 TeV and the heaviest particles it can create are the .171 TeV top quark and the .125 TeV Higgs boson. This gives electron and muon colliders an energy edge over proton colliders.

Electron and muon colliders can also tune the beam energy to be exactly equal to the rest energy of the particle they're trying to create, whereas the energy of a quark-quark collision can't be tuned. This means that electron and muon colliders can produce particles with greater rates than a proton collider.

Electron and muon collisions also produce less background particles than proton collisions, making the events easier to analyze.


Synchrotron limit from the Earth's curvature

If a collider follows the curvature of the Earth then the synchrotron energy limit is:

Collider radius                =  R  =  6.371⋅106 meters  (For the Earth)
Particle energy                =  E  =  23 TeV           (For electrons limited by the Earth's curvature)
Particle rest energy           =  Eo =  .00000051 TeV    (Electrons)
Forward accelerating force     =  Fc =  .0001 TeV/m      (For the Compact Linear Accelerator)
Synchrotron decelerating force =  Fs =  (2/3) K q2 (E/Eo)4 / R2
If the collider force is equal to the synchrotron force,
E  =  Eo  Fc1/4  R1/2  [(2/3) K q2]-1/4

The following table gives the synchrotron energy limit for electrons, protons, and muons.

                              Radius     Electron    Muon     Proton
                                           TeV       TeV       TeV

Earth surface                  6371 km       23       4800      43000
Orbit around Earth            10000 km       29       6000      53000
Earth orbit around sun          1.2 AU     6000     850000    7500000
Kuiper Belt orbit around sun   40   AU    53000    4700000   41000000
Light year radius           63200   AU  2109000  187060000 1630000000

Muon ring collider

Muons have a halflife of 2.2 microseconds. Muons in a collider live longer because of time dilation, and so they can traverse the ring many times before decaying.

Muon halflife       =  T  =  2.2e-6 seconds
Collider radius     =  R
Magnetic field      =  B
Muon energy in TeV  =  E  =  .00030 B R           (from the "ring colliders" section)
Muon Lorentz factor =  Z  =  E / .000106  =  E / Restenergy
Speed of light      =  C
Ring cycles         =  N  =  Z T C / (2 π R)      (Trips around the ring in one halflife)
                          =  (.00030 B R / .000106) T C / (2 π R)
                          =  297 B
A future muon collider would have B ~ 10 Tesla, and so the muons will traverse the ring ~ 3000 times before decaying.

The obstacle to building a muon collider is the need for a muon cooling technology, currently under development at Fermilab. If this can be done, then muons could be used at the Large Hadron Collider.

Muons emit high-energy neutrinos, which is a hazard to nearby humans. A set of sample radiation parameters can be found in http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ex/0005006v1.pdf

Muon energy    Radiation
  (TeV)      (mSieverts/yr)
    2            .0005
    5           2.3
   50          10
Earth average background radiation is 3.5 mSieverts/yr. A muon collider with energy > 5 TeV would have to be located at a remote site away from civilization.
Future colliders

These are hypothetical colliders that could be built in the near or distant future. We assume a gradient of .1 TeV/km for linear colliders and a magnetic field of 10 Tesla for ring colliders.


Particle  Shape   Length or     Energy
                  Radius (km)   (TeV)
Electron  Ring       13            .125  Higgs energy, to mass-produce the Higgs
Electron  Linear     30           3      Compact Linear Collider
Proton    Ring        4.2         7      Existing LHC
Electron  Linear    800          80      Limited by synchrotron radiation from the Earth's curvature
Muon      Linear   4000         400
Proton    Ring     1000         600      Continent-sized
Electron  Linear   1 AU        4200      Orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars. synchrotron limit
Muon      Ring    10000        6000      Orbiting the Earth
Muon      Ring     1 AU         106      Orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars. synchrotron limit
Muon      Ring   100 AU         107      Orbiting the sun at the Kuiper belt, synchrotron limit
Muon      Linear   1 LY         1012

An advanced civilization will likely find a way to improve the energy gradient, and hence a light year sized collider will likely reach the strong scale energy of 1013 TeV. Reaching the Planck energy of 1016 requires a substantial improvement in the energy gradient, or a colossally long collider.

The Planck energy is 1016 TeV. If the energy gradient is .1 TeV/km then the collider length is 1017 km = 10000 light years. This is 1/3 of the distance between the sun and the center of the Milky Way. Such a collider would have to be built in intergalactic space to escape the gravity of galaxies.


Luminosity, power, and beam cross section

Collider           Particle  Type  Energy  Size  Magnet   Lum    Power  BeamX  BeamY  BeamZ  Particles/   Particles/
                                    TeV    km    Tesla  e38/m2/s  MW     um     um     um    second (1024)   bunch

Stanford Linear Accel.   e-  Linear   .045   3.2          .0003  64     2      2              .12
Int. Linear Collider     e-  Linear   .5    16           2      230            5.7
Compact Linear Collider  e-  Linear  3      30           6      240      .040  1              .024
Large Electron Positron  e-  Ring     .104   4.3          .01    18   200      2          3600
Higgs factory            e-  Ring     .125   8.5         1.8     50
Super Proton Synchrotron p   Ring     .45    1.1   2.0
Fermilab                 p   Ring    1.0     1.0   4.4    .005         30     30
Superconduct Supercoll   p   Ring   20      13.9   6.6
Large Hadron Collider    p   Ring    7       4.3   8.33  1             17     17    44   29000 
Future Circular Collide  p   Ring   50      16    16
"Size" corresponds to radius for a ring collider and length for a linear collider.

"Lum" is the luminosity in 10^34 particles / cm2 / s

BeamX is the horizontal beam size

BeamY is the vertical beam size

Linear colliders tend to have a smaller beam cross section than ring colliders.

The "Circular Electron Positron" collider is a future collider that is optimized for generating Higgs particles.


Linear electron collider vs. proton ring collider

Suppose we compare the tunnel lengths of a linear and a ring collider.

In an electron-positron collision, all of the particle energy can be harnessed for creating new particles. In a proton-proton collision, only a fraction of the energy is available for creating new particles.

Linear collider radius            =  Rl           =  500  km
Linear collider energy gradient   =  G            =   .1  TeV/km
Linear collider energy            =  El =  Rl G   =   50  TeV
Ring collider radius              =  Rr           =   83  km
Ring collider mean magnetic field =  B            =   10  Tesla
Ring collider constant            =  C            =   .30 TeV/Tesla/km
Ring collider reach factor        =  f            =   .2
Ring collider energy              =  Er =  C B Rr =  250  TeV
                                        =  El/f
Radius ratio                      =  Q  =  Rr/Rl  =  G (f C B)-1  = .17  for protons
                                                                             = .033 for muons

Problems

What is the interplanetary magnetic field as a function of distance from the sun? What would you estimate is the lowest-energy cosmic ray that can reach the Earth from interstellar space?


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© Jason Maron, all rights reserved.

Data from Wikipedia unless otherwise specified.