Particle physics is in an era of mysteries, from the origin of mass to the nature of dark matter. While the discovery of the Higgs boson has provided the first hint of how the known fundamental particles obtain their masses, the Higgs is but the herald of the untested mechanism of mass generation itself. At the same time, 85% of the matter in the universe — the so-called dark matter — has resisted decades of experimental efforts at uncovering its identity. To confront these and other mysteries, particle physicists are proposing to construct an audacious new machine for discovery: a muon collider. By colliding muons (the heavier, unstable sibling of the electron) for the very first time, we aim to probe the fundamental theory of nature more efficiently and effectively than ever before. In this talk, I’ll survey the central questions of modern particle physics and the prospects for answering them with a muon collider, describing the rich physics of muons and the challenges of muon accelerators along the way.
