China's Great Scientific Leap Forward Completion of a planned 'Great Collider' would transform particle physics

摘要

Chinese President Xi Jinpings visit to Washington is an excellent opportunity to recognize China's scientific contributions to the global community, and to foster more cooperation between the U.S. and China in many areas of science, especially particle physics. The discovery of the Higgs particle at Europe's Large Hadron Collider in 2012 began a new era. It confirmed an essential feature of the 40-year-old Standard Model of particle physics, a missing ingredient that was needed to make the whole structure work. But the discovery also left many questions unanswered. These include the mass of the Higgs particle, the unification of all subatomic forces, and the incorporation of quantum gravity—issues that must be addressed if scientists wish to understand the origin of the universe.