While the predictions of modern theories in particle physics reach ever higher energy levels, physicists are thinking about solutions to increase the power developed by particle accelerators. The simplest solution would undoubtedly be to build a new collider on Earth which would be the successor to the LHC. However, another solution would be to build this collider on the Moon. Very low temperatures, natural vacuum and gravitational lock with the Earth, so many arguments put forward in favor of the construction of a lunar successor to the LHC.
As we learn more about the Universe, our experiments in particle physics have become increasingly complex. In order to unlock the secrets of the smallest subatomic particles, physicists must keep colliders and detectors as cool as possible, remove as much air as possible, and keep them as still as possible to obtain reliable results.
The question of placing these technologies on the Moon then arose. A proposal published on arXiv earlier this year argues that the Moon is actually a fairly optimized place to do high-energy physics. First, it's cold. Very cold. Without an atmosphere and without water, there is nothing to transport the Sun's heat from one place to another. At night, with the Sun below the horizon, temperatures drop to -73 degrees C; within the range of typical cryogenic configurations on Earth.
During the day, the surface warms up a little, reaching in places over 38°C. But as the ice hidden in the shadows of lunar craters proves, all you need to cool the middle is a little shadow. Again, without air or water, areas out of direct sunlight are extremely cold.
Physicists need these cold temperatures for several reasons. In accelerators, cold temperatures ensure that the superconducting magnets — used to shoot particles inside the accelerator at near-light speeds — don't deteriorate. Second, the hotter a detector, the more background noise you have to fight to untangle the tiny signals of subatomic particles (more heat equals more molecules vibrating, which equals more noise).
Apart from the cool temperatures, the fact that the Moon has no atmosphere is also a boon. Physicists must create a vacuum within accelerators and detectors. But the Moon has a vacuum 10 times better than anything physicists have developed in their experiments. And it happens naturally, without any effort.
Finally, due to gravitational locking, the Moon always keeps the same side pointing towards the Earth. This means that a particle beam from the Moon could be aimed at a detection laboratory on Earth, taking advantage of the long distance without having to put in much effort to align the configuration.
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The most promising use of a lunar physics experiment would be as a source of neutrinos. Needless to say, neutrinos are difficult to study and understand. They are made in large quantities in nuclear reactions, so all it would take would be to put a nuclear power plant on the Moon. The neutrinos it produced would arrive on Earth, where we could capture and study them.
A property of neutrinos is that they are able to change type (or flavor) as they propagate; a phenomenon known as oscillation. With a long distance separating neutrino generation and detection, we give more neutrinos a chance to "change flavor" and we can better understand this behavior. The Moon is a perfect source:it's far enough away that we can get long distances, but close enough that we can capture neutrinos in sufficient quantities to actually study them (and probably troubleshoot the facility if something goes wrong).
