Adrian ChoAs U.S. particle physicists contemplate their future, they find themselves victims of their own surprising success.
Seven years ago, the often fractious community hammered out its current research road map and rallied around it. Thanks to that unity—and generous budgets—the Department of Energy (DOE), the field’s main U.S.
sponsor, has already started on almost every project on the list.So next week, as U.S. particle physicists start to drum up new ideas for the next decade in a yearlong Snowmass process—named for the Colorado ski resort where such planning exercises once took place—they have no single big project to push for (or against).