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Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations

FINDINGS

Finding: A broad set of experiments that does not involve particle colliders are critical to addressing many of the most urgent questions in particle physics.

Finding: Elementary particle physics is already adapting innovative tools from other areas of physics and computer science to the mutual benefit of both fields.

Finding: The long journey to realize the extraordinary opportunities for discovery in particle physics will require sustained and steady support of the scientists who carry out the work and targeted investments in research and development that will make the ambitious projects possible.

Finding: The design and construction of future colliders and neutrino sources will require a large number of accelerator scientists. This, and the demand for such scientists in other scientific fields, industry and in medicine, will create a shortfall, estimated to be a factor of 3 to 4. Moreover, fewer than 10 U.S. universities currently offer graduate education or programs in accelerator physics.

Finding: Elementary particle physics is competing with other scientific fields for resources and also with industry for talent.

Finding: Graduate students and postdocs provide a critical part of the particle physics workforce. The recent very significant rise—well beyond inflation—in the compensation for both is appropriate and overdue. It has also significantly increased the labor costs in particle physics and more broadly in science, where the available funding is not even keeping up with inflation.

Finding: The field of elementary particle physics was international from its earliest days and, today, is a global science enterprise.

Finding: The number of nations engaged in particle physics research has grown to nearly 100, as has their capabilities. No single nation dominates the field as the United States once did.

Finding: The United States has been and continues to be a leader in particle physics, in large measure through its strategic partnerships with other nations and regions and its ability to successfully host large projects.

Finding: The program of activities needed to address the agenda of particle physics is beyond the resources—human and fiscal—of any single nation, and planning and coordination are essential to success.

Finding: National and regional planning in particle physics works well; planning and coordination on the global scale needs to be more effective.

Finding: Technological developments in particle physics have enabled and/or sped up their development more broadly, with important societal impacts.

Finding: Particle physics is an essential component of the scientific fabric of the United States and has synergistic interactions with many other fields.

Finding: The short-term societal benefits of particle physics include technology transfer, the technology pull of challenging requirements in accelerators, electronics, computing, imaging, and advanced materials, and a workforce in the form of highly skilled individuals who are trained in particle physics and move to industry.

Finding: Historically, the long-term benefits associated with seeking to understand the fundamental rules that govern the physical world include the advances and discoveries in chemistry, electricity, atomic energy, and quantum mechanics that make the modern world possible. In particular, the technological applications of quantum theory, from chips to sensors, that underpin the current information age.

Finding: The extreme challenges and amazing accomplishments of particle physics research provide other benefits to the United States, including prestige and making the nation a magnet for the most talented individuals from around the globe.

Finding: The highly globalized field of particle physics contributes to science diplomacy and makes the United States a science beacon for the world.

CONCLUSIONS

Conclusion: Three workforce issues are threatening the future of particle physics: the morale of early-career scientists; a shortfall in the number of accelerator scientists; and growing barriers to international exchanges. It is essential to the future of elementary particle physics in the United States that it address its workforce issues.

Conclusion: The United States should continue its leadership in elementary particle physics because of its many benefits to science, the nation, and humanity.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendation 1: The United States should host the world’s highest-energy elementary particle collider around the middle of the century. This requires the immediate creation of a national muon collider research and development program to enable the construction of a demonstrator of the key new technologies and their integration.

Recommendation 2: The United States should participate in the international Future Circular Collider Higgs factory currently under study at CERN to unravel the physics of the Higgs boson.

Recommendation 3: The United States should continue to pursue and develop new approaches to questions ranging from neutrino physics and tests of fundamental symmetries to the mysteries of dark matter, dark energy, cosmic inflation, and the excess of matter over antimatter in the universe.

Recommendation 4: The United States should explore new synergistic partnerships across traditional science disciplines and funding boundaries.

Recommendation 5: The United States should invest for the long journey ahead with sustained research and development funding in accelerator science and technology, advanced instrumentation, all aspects of computing, emerging technologies from other disciplines, and a healthy core research program.

Recommendation 6: The federal government should provide the means and the particle physics community should take responsibility for recruiting, training, mentoring, and retaining the highly motivated student and postdoctoral workforce required for the success of the field’s ambitious science goals.

Recommendation 7: The United States should engage internationally through existing and new partnerships and explore new cooperative planning mechanisms.

Recommendation 8: Funding agencies, national laboratories, and universities should work to minimize the environmental impact of particle physics research and facilities.