Many renowned Chinese and foreign physicists have joined a discussion about whether China should build a next-generation large hadron collider. Britain physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking is encouraging China to do just that.
"China has an incredible opportunity to become the world leader here — don't waste it. Agood example is to build the Great Collider that can lead high energy physics for the nextfifty years," Hawking wrote.
Well-known mathematician Shing-Tung Yau is in favor of Hawking's suggestion, andproposed that China choose a place near Shanhai Pass in Qinhuandao, Hebei province as itsbuilding site. Meanwhile, Chen Ning Yang, Nobel Laureate in Physics, openly opposed theidea in September, though Wang Yifang, director of the Institute of High-Energy Physics(IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, refuted Chen's objections.
The discussion goes beyond China's borders. Philip Warren Anderson, an Americanphysicist and Nobel laureate, is among the opponents of the plan, while David JonathanGross, an American theoretical physicist and string theorist, is a proponent.
Also important to mention is that the world's current largest hadron collider is the LHC atCERN. It helped scientists to discover the Higgs boson, which is regarded as the lastbuilding block of the model.
Below is the original text by Hawking:
Particle physics is definitely not a dying field. It is however an entirely different enterprisethan it was in 1980. Since then, the standard model looks to be essentially confirmed andthis may give the impression that the field is complete. However, that is far from beingtrue. There are phenomena that are just not included in the standard model. Some are CPviolation, neutrino oscillations, dark matter. In theory, the problems are immense: how toinclude gravity, the recently discovered dualities of quantum field theories, quarkconfinement, dark energy, black holes, early-universe cosmology. It is a different world butone that offers huge challenges to ambitious young people interested in how our Universeworks. China has an incredible opportunity to become the world leader here — don't wasteit. A good example is to build the Great Collider that can lead high energy physics for the next fifty years.
