The Muon Collider: A Next-Generation Facility at the Energy Frontier

by Chris Rodgers (RAL)

Wednesday 31 Jan 2024, 13:30 → 14:30 Europe/London

Small Lecture Theatre (Poynting)

Muon colliders have been proposed as a next generation collider with exquisite physics reach and possibility for construction by the 2040s. Electron-positron colliders are limited due to challenges associated with accelerating low mass particles to high energy. Hadron colliders’ performance is compromised because hadrons are composite particles.

To cope with this, many next-generation colliders require order-of-magnitude larger linacs or rings and these are challenging to implement. Muon colliders do not suffer from the challenges surrounding acceleration of low mass particles and muons are not composite so there is no fundamental constraint limiting physics reach. However, the challenges surrounding accelerating muons on a timescale compatible with the muon lifetime require novel techniques that need R&D.

In this seminar, I will briefly review the physics opportunities before discussing the challenges associated with construction of a muon collider and outlining the R&D that is being undertaken by the International Muon Collider Collaboration to deliver the collider. I will also discuss the application of these new beam techniques to other muon-based facilities such as muon-to-electron conversion experiments and neutrino production. I will finish by discussing the prospects for the Muon Collider as a next-generation facility capable of operation at the energy frontier.