Future Circular Colliders

In response to a request from the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, the global Future Circular Collider (FCC) study is preparing the foundation for a next-generation large-scale accelerator infrastructure in the heart of Europe. The FCC study focuses on the design of a 100-TeV hadron collider (FCC-hh), to be accommodated in a new ∼100 km tunnel near Geneva. It also includes the design of a high-luminosity electron-positron collider (FCC-ee), which could be installed in the same tunnel as a potential intermediate step, and a lepton-hadron collider option (FCC-he). The scope of the FCC study comprises accelerators, technology, infrastructure, detectors, physics, concepts for worldwide data services, international governance models, and implementation scenarios. Among the FCC core technologies figure 16-T dipole magnets, based on Nb$_{3}$Sn superconductor, for the FCC-hh hadron collider, and a highly efficient superconducting radiofrequency system for the FCC-ee lepton collider. The international FCC study, hosted at CERN, is mandated to deliver a Conceptual Design Report together with a preliminary cost estimate by the time of the next European Strategy Update expected for 2019. Following the FCC concept—or, more precisely, the preceding “TLEP/VHE-LHC” studies in Europe —IHEP Beijing has initiated the design study for an e+e− Higgs factory in China (CEPC), which is to be succeeded by a high-energy hadron collider (SPPC). At present a tunnel circumference of 54 km and a hadron collider c.m. energy of about 70 TeV are being considered. This article reports the motivation and the present status of the FCC study, design challenges, R&D subjects, as well as the emerging global collaboration.