Motivation and design of a yotta-eV $\tau^+\tau^-$ collider

TL;DR

This paper advocates for a revolutionary tau-collider operating at yotta-electronvolt energies, aiming to advance particle physics beyond current colliders and urging early R&D despite technological challenges.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, high-energy tau-collider concept with a focus on long-term scientific goals and technological development.

Findings

Conceptual design of a yotta-eV tau-collider

Discussion of technological and civilization requirements

Call for early R&D investment

Abstract

Two significant goals of the particle physics community is the precision study of the Higgs boson and the search for new particles. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the current high-energy collider, soon to be superseded by the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). Much of the community has rallied around a muon-collider, though that is most likely 25 years in the future. In this paper, we argue for a bolder approach: {\it a tau-collider}, in which oppositely-charged $\tau$-leptons are collided with energies on the yotta-eV scale and a potential radius that places it in the Oort cloud. Given the long time-scale and significant construction challenges, we strongly suggest the focus of the community shift to this discovery machine. We acknowledge that the technology necessary may require humanity to evolve to a Kardashev Level-I or Level-II civilization, which is all the more reason to begin R\&D now.