From precision physics to the energy frontier with the Compact Linear Collider

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a proposed high-luminosity collider that would collide electrons with their antiparticles, positrons, at energies ranging from a few hundred giga-electronvolts to a few tera-electronvolts. By covering a large energy range and by ultimately reaching collision energies in the multi-tera-electronvolts range, scientists at CLIC aim to improve the understanding of nature’s fundamental building blocks and to discover new particles or other physics phenomena. CLIC is an international project hosted by CERN with 75 institutes worldwide participating in the accelerator, detector and physics studies. If commissioned, the first electron–positron collisions at CLIC are expected around 2035, following the high-luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Here we survey the principal merits of CLIC, and examine the opportunities that arise as a result of its design. We argue that CLIC represents an attractive proposition for the next-generation particle collider by combining an innovative accelerator technology, a realistic delivery timescale, and a physics programme that is highly complementary to existing accelerators, reaching uncharted territory.