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Particle physicists want to build the world’s first muon collider

The accelerator would smash together this heavier version of the electron and, researchers hope, discover new particles.
  1. Elizabeth Gibney
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Momentum is growing to build a particle collider in the United States that smashes muons — heavier cousins of electrons. The collider would follow the world’s next major accelerator, which is yet to be built, and physicists hope it would discover new elementary particles. Although muons’ short-lived nature makes such a collider technically difficult to build, the major advantage is that it would be smaller and potentially cheaper than competing collider designs. The vision remains distant, into the 2040s at the earliest, but research and development need to begin now, say its advocates.

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Nature 608, 660-661 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02122-y

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 11 August 2022: The original version of the graphic ‘Future colliders’ misnamed the US Cool Copper Collider and wrongly suggested that it would be circular. It has a linear design. Some date estimates have also been adjusted.

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