Newsline

Director's Corner

Preparing for SCRF industrialisation

by Barry Barish

Developing a realistic plan for cost-effective production of the large number of ILC superconducting cavities and cryomodules is perhaps our most challenging task in preparing for the Technical Design Report. A new round of visits to industry is aimed at informing that effort.

Feature

European detector experts join in the AIDA chorus

Scientists gather at CERN to launch the new AIDA project, a plan to ease collaboration among Europe's particle physics institutes

by Barbara Warmbein

European accelerator and detector sciences kick off the AIDA project, a four-year plan that will allow easier coordination and collaboration among the continent's particle physics institutes.

Around the World

Tumbling opens possibilities

Fermilab scientists develop a method of ultra-fine polishing for the interior walls of accelerating cavities.

by Leah Hesla

A Fermilab team places water and pebble-like materials in a niobium accelerating cavity and spins it around like a carnival ride. As they do, they hope to perfect the recipe for achieving not only a high gradient, but a mirror-like finish every time.

Image of the week

US labs featured at AAAS Exhibit Fair

Image: Reidar Hahn

Many ILC-affiliated laboratories were represented at the Exhibit Fair at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Washington D.C. from 16 to 20 February

In the News

  • From From BBC News
    28 February 2011
    “If we don’t see it after this two year run it means that something is perhaps not the way that we think it is, either the Higgs search itself had to be amended in some way or some of its indirect evidence may be pointing us in the wrong direction,” said Professor LeCompte.
  • From Time
    28 February 2011
    James Braatz and Cheng-Yu Kuo have measured the distance to galaxy NGC 6264 to an accuracy of 450 million light-years from Earth, give or take 9%. That’s crucial, because while it’s simple to measure how fast a galaxy is moving, you also need to know exactly where it is.
  • From CERN Courier
    23 February 2011
    The particle detectors developed in the AIDA project will be used in a planned upgrade to the LHC; at the proposed International Linear Collider, which will study the Standard Model of physics and beyond with higher precision; Super-B factories, which aim to understand the matter–antimatter asymmetry in the universe; and neutrino facilities.
  • From CERN Courier
    23 February 2011
    To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first International Women’s Day, we look at the crucial role that women have played in nuclear and particle physics during the past century.
  • From CERN Courier
    23 February 2011
    …the future relies on the successful start of the LHC and discoveries there. This implies that the international linear-collider community should be ready by 2012 to propose a viable project for a machine with two detectors.