Rutgers University Astrophysics Colloquium

Established in 1954, the “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire” or “CERN” has been the leading European laboratory for accelerator-based studies of the fundamental particles and their interactions.  CERN has hosted several large particle colliders, including LEP and HL-LHC, leading to the discoveries of the W, Z, and Higgs bosons.  The ongoing European Strategy Update will decide CERN’s next large facility.  In this talk, I’ll describe the leading candidate, the Future Circular Collider program, centered around a new large tunnel, allowing an electron-positron collider followed by a proton-proton collider.  I’ll talk about its exciting physics program and its potential impact on the unanswered questions of fundamental physics.