Ultimate Colliders

Abstract

Understanding the universe critically depends on the fundamental knowledge of particles and fields, which represents a central endeavor of modern high-energy physics. Energy frontier particle colliders—arguably, among the largest, most complex, and advanced scientific instruments of modern times—for many decades have been at the forefront of scientific discoveries in high-energy physics. Because of advances in technology and breakthroughs in beam physics, the colliding beam facilities have progressed immensely and now operate at energies and luminosities many orders of magnitude greater than the pioneering instruments of the early 1960s. While the Large Hadron Collider and the Super-KEKB factory represent the frontier hadron and lepton colliders of today, respectively, future colliders are an essential component of a strategic vision for particle physics. Conceptual studies and technical developments for several exciting near- and medium-term future collider options are underway internationally. Analysis of numerous proposals and studies for far-future colliders indicate the limits of the collider beam technology due to machine size, cost, and power consumption, and call for a paradigm shift of particle physics research at ultrahigh energy but low luminosity colliders approaching or exceeding 1 PeV center-of-mass energy scale.