A Higgs Factory is a

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Large accelerators are used for fun ...

designed to produce

Higgs Boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the St ...

s at a very high rate, allowing precision studies of this particle. A Higgs factory was identified as the highest future priority of particle physics in the 2020 European Strategy Report. This view was reaffirmed in 2022 by the International Committee on Future Accelerators. The Higgs Boson, discovered in 2012, was the final missing particle of the

Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces ( electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions - excluding gravity) in the universe and classifying all known elementary particles. I ...

of particle physics. However, unexplained phenomena, such as

dark matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...

lead physicists to think that the Standard Model is an incomplete theory and that new particles may exist. Physicists can search for evidence of new particles in two ways. The first is through direct production, which requires sufficient energy, high production rate, and sensitive detector design. Alternatively, the search can focus on careful measurements of properties of known particles, like the Higgs, that may be affected by interactions with the new particles that are not directly observed. This second approach is the goal of a Higgs Factory. Two potential linear accelerator designs for a Higgs factory are the

International Linear Collider The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a proposed linear particle accelerator. It is planned to have a collision energy of 500 GeV initially, with the possibility for a later upgrade to 1000 GeV (1 TeV). Although early proposed ...

(ILC) proposed in Japan at present and the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) at CERN. Because the Higgs Boson has a relatively light mass of 125 GeV, circular electron-positron collider designs can be applied for the construction of a Higgs factory as well. Two circular designs under consideration are the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee) at CERN and the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) in China.

References

{{Reflist Particle physics facilities Proposed particle accelerators

See also

References