The 2020 FCC November meeting took place between Monday, 9 to Friday, 13 November. The event reviewed the most recent developments of the concepts for the next generation of colliders that were laid out in the 2019 Conceptual Design Report.
The event combined the 4th FCC Physics Week with the kick-off meeting of the new 3M€ EU-funded Horizon 2020 FCC Innovation Study (FCCIS), which is the continuation of EuroCirCol. The Cockcroft Institute is involved in this major study through the University of Liverpool.
FCC NoW was the first meeting of the FCC collaboration after the 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP), which identified the need for more in-depth study of the Higgs boson and exploration of the high-energy frontier.
The updated Strategy emphasises the importance of international investigation into the technical and financial feasibility of an electron–positron Higgs and electroweak factory as a possible first stage, while at the same time guaranteeing a future hadron collider at CERN with a centre-of-mass energy of at least 100 TeV in the most affordable and efficient way. The FCCIS design study will support the development of a roadmap for the design and the implementation plan of a new research infrastructure that will assist in the exploration of both fronts. The proposed infrastructure, a 100-km-long tunnel with a dozen surface sites, would initially host an electron–positron collider (FCC-ee) that would allow for precise measurement of the properties of the Higgs boson and other Standard Model particles. This would be followed by an energy frontier proton collider (FCC-hh), reaching collision energies of 100 TeV or higher following developments in the superconducting and magnet technology. This project will validate the key performance enablers at particle accelerators in a sustainable way while offering opportunities for co-development of advanced technologies with industry.