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Momentum is growing to build a particle collider in the United States that smashes muons — heavier cousins of electrons. The collider would follow the world’s next major accelerator, which is yet to be built, and physicists hope it would discover new elementary particles. Although muons’ short-lived…

As the discovery of the Higgs boson approaches its 10-year anniversary, physicists are busy building on its legacy. Although it was a tour de force, the experimental confirmation left many mysteries still unsolved. To find a way forward, physicists gathered virtually for a symposium at the 2021 APS April Meeting to discuss the potential for a muon collider—an ambitious new machine that could help answer many questions.

Scientists have announced a breakthrough that could be key to the creation of a powerful new kind of particle collider. As reported in the journal Nature, the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment, or MICE, has for the first time demonstrated the successful taming of a beam of particles called muons through a process called transverse ionization cooling.