University of Tennessee Assistant Professor Pioneers Next-Gen Muon Collider Research with $1 Million Simons Foundation Grant
In a groundbreaking development poised to push the boundaries of particle physics, Assistant Professor Tova Holmes of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, together with her colleagues Isobel Ojalvo from Princeton University and Karri DiPetrillo of the University of Chicago, has secured a prestigious $1 million grant from the Simons Foundation. This funding marks a significant milestone in advancing the conceptual groundwork needed for the creation of a muon collider—an ambitious next-generation particle accelerator system envisioned to unlock deep cosmic mysteries. The two-year grant, awarded through the Simons Foundation’s Targeted Grants in Mathematics and Physical Sciences program, underscores the imperative to explore novel frontiers in both foundational science and accelerator technology.
The proposed muon collider represents a pivotal evolution in accelerator physics, designed to deliver collision energies far exceeding current facilities. Unlike the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which utilizes proton beams, the muon collider leverages the unique properties of muons—elementary particles with no substructure akin to electrons, but with a mass 200 times greater. This increased mass allows muons to achieve higher-energy collisions in a more compact accelerator footprint. With conventional proton colliders, only a fraction of the particle’s energy is available for producing new phenomena due to their composite nature. Electrons, being fundamental but light, lose significant energy through synchrotron radiation when accelerated in circular paths. Muons, therefore, offer the ideal compromise, enabling high-energy collisions that can probe particle physics at unprecedented scales.
However, harnessing muons poses extraordinary technical challenges. Their average lifetime of merely two millionths of a second demands rapid and efficient production, acceleration, and collision before decay. While muons are abundantly generated when cosmic rays strike the atmosphere, artificially producing stable, tightly collimated muon beams suitable for collider operations remains an uncharted territory. Holmes explains that creating muons is relatively straightforward: bombarding a target with a high-energy proton beam produces muons as secondary particles. Yet, collecting these muons, aligning them into dense, controlled beams, and subsequently accelerating them before they vanish is an intricate orchestration of physics and engineering, with no prior collider experience to guide the process.
The significance of the muon collider extends far beyond technical ingenuity. It carries the promise of unraveling some of the most profound mysteries of the universe, from the fundamental nature of dark matter to the dynamics governing the Higgs boson and the ultimate fate of the cosmos. Dark matter, which constitutes an estimated 85 percent of all matter in the universe, remains stubbornly elusive to detection despite decades of efforts. The unprecedented energy scales and collision environments achievable with muon colliders may finally give scientists the sensitivity needed to detect particles associated with dark matter, finally shedding light on this cosmic enigma.
Central to these investigations is the Higgs boson, the particle discovered at the LHC in 2012, whose associated field imparts mass to other fundamental particles. The muon collider’s ability to generate large numbers of Higgs bosons through high-energy collisions opens the door to detailed studies of the Higgs potential—a conceptual landscape describing the energy states of the Higgs field. This potential governs the universe’s mass distribution and phase transitions that shaped the early cosmos. Holmes emphasizes that understanding the Higgs potential is not merely academic; it could reveal whether our universe exists in a stable state or is poised on the brink of a catastrophic phase shift that might rearrange everything at an elemental level.
The nuances of the Higgs potential are often described through analogies of rolling hills and valleys. In this picture, the Higgs field “settles” in a valley, conferring mass to particles and stabilizing matter as we know it. Quantum mechanical tunneling, however, introduces the possibility that the field might transition to a deeper valley—another state with profoundly different physical properties. This hypothetical transition would restructure the fabric of matter and energy, fundamentally rewriting the laws of physics and altering the cosmos irreversibly. The muon collider’s capacity to produce multiple Higgs bosons simultaneously is unique among proposed machines, offering an experimental gateway to probe these subtle but critical features.
Beyond theory, the Simons Foundation grant strategically emphasizes the development and mentorship of young scientists who will pioneer the accelerator technologies and experimental frameworks integral to the muon collider. Holmes and her collaborators are committed to bridging the often disparate domains of experimental particle physics and accelerator science, fostering an interdisciplinary environment crucial for the success of this vision. Accelerator physics—a field born from core physics principles—is foundational not only in particle physics but also in myriad applications across medicine, materials science, and industry. Yet, Holmes highlights an urgent gap: few academic programs offer robust training in accelerator science, a shortfall that threatens the continuity of innovation.
Historically, accelerator research has been centered in national laboratories, limiting university involvement and the cultivation of a new generation of accelerator scientists. The grant’s funding will support graduate students and postdoctoral researchers working across particle physics and accelerator challenges, facilitating pioneering investigations into muon beam production, manipulation, and collision schemes. This holistic strategy aims at delivering the technical “pre-work” necessary to eventually construct a functioning muon collider, while enabling experimental exploration of intermediate accelerator configurations that could themselves yield novel physics insights.
Holmes reflects that even incremental advances toward the full collider hold considerable promise. The scientific community is intrigued by the potential “intermediate beams,” whose unique properties could open observational windows never before accessible. These steps exemplify the methodical approach required: each innovation, from beam cooling techniques to rapid acceleration protocols, tests the limits of technology and theory alike. The complexities of stabilizing muon beams before decay necessitate novel accelerator lattice designs, high-precision magnetic optics, and advanced detector instrumentation, all pushing the envelope of current knowledge and capabilities.
As particle physics looks beyond the achievements of the Large Hadron Collider era, the pursuit of a muon collider symbolizes both ambition and necessity. Holmes and her team’s research aligns with the national particle physics roadmap, which envisions this facility as integral to answering unresolved questions about the universe’s composition, the interplay of fundamental forces, and the mechanisms underlying mass generation. With funding secured, the team embarks on a critical phase, one marked by intense collaboration, innovation, and rigorous experimental validation, setting the stage for a transformative chapter in high-energy physics.
This initiative exemplifies the synergy between theoretical vision and practical application. It embodies a profound commitment to nurturing talent and technology capable of sustaining scientific discovery well into the future. As Holmes succinctly puts it, “If you look somewhere you’ve never looked before, you don’t know what you’re going to see.” This spirit of bold inquiry underscores the muon collider’s potential not just as a machine, but as a beacon illuminating the frontier of human understanding.
Subject of Research: Particle physics, muon collider development, high-energy accelerators, Higgs boson studies, dark matter detection, accelerator science education
Article Title: University of Tennessee Physicist Leads Charge in Muon Collider Innovation with $1 Million Simons Grant
News Publication Date: Not provided
Web References:
– https://physics.utk.edu/people/instructional-faculty/holmes-tova/
– https://www.simonsfoundation.org/
– https://www.usparticlephysics.org/2023-p5-report/index.html
– https://home.cern/science/physics/dark-matter
– https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsthe-higgs-boson
Image Credits: University of Tennessee
Keywords
Particle physics, Muons, Dark matter, Higgs boson, Muon collider, Accelerator physics, High-energy physics, Fundamental particles, Quantum tunneling, Particle accelerators, Scientific mentorship, Simons Foundation
