The Simple Case For Why Physics Needs A Particle Collider Beyond The LHC
“But how can you compare the cost of a new collider to the cost to humanity of not even trying to comprehend the great unknowns before us? There may come a day where we give up on what science can teach us, but today is not that day. So long as there's a frontier to push in terms of energy, precision, or the amount of data we can collect, it is our duty as a curious species to push those boundaries as far as we possibly can.
The brute force approach isn't the only one we should take, of course, just as surely as astronomers don't invest everything in building a single telescope with as much light-gathering power as possible. But to abandon it now, after it's taken us so far, would be the worst mistake we could make.
The low-hanging fruit may be gone, and we don't know what may be up there in the tree-tops. We can build a cherry-picker good enough to take us there. Don't you want a chance to taste the sweetest fruit of all?”
Do you want to know what lies beyond the Standard Model? To have a chance at peering beyond the current frontier that’s limiting our understanding of all that exists in the Universe? Or is it simply time to state that we know what we know, and there’s no point in looking further?
There’s a lot to unpack, but there’s a simple case to be made for building a new particle collider beyond the LHC. I’m not ready to give up yet; are you?