From financial woes and teacher shortages to major projects being delayed or cancelled, many issues facing physicists 30 years ago remain just as pertinent now as they did then. Michael Banks investigates.

This is the first time for such an exchange at one of the eight ILC model schools. One student, Chisato Kamada, said, “I got a better idea of what it would be like at the ILC, where scientists from around the world will gather.”

(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here).

As you can imagine, there are some hurdles when communicating the ILC to the community. Many have not heard of particle accelerators, it’s difficult to picture what the project will look like and the sheer scale, people question the impact of the ILC and what the science will be used for.

ＩＬＣ誘致実現連絡協議会（河村建夫会長）は１８日、初会合を開き、超大型加速器「国際リニアコライダー」（ＩＬＣ）誘致費用の財源は通常の科学技術・学術・大学予算とは別枠とするべきだとした決議をまとめた。

The non-partisan Federation of Diet Members for the ILC (FDMILC, Chair: Hon. Takeo Kawamura of the House of Representatives) and related organizations in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, Japan’s leading political party) came together on September 18th to form a Liaison Council for the ILC. They will strengthen efforts to encourage the national government to position the ILC as a promising national project.
(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here).

While physicists hope that the Japanese government will now get behind the facility by the end of the year, there are many other projects vying for funding, no less a major new neutrino facility in Kamioka. It is likely that a decision about the ILC will be kicked further down the road.

内向きの政策を続け、科学大国の座から降りるのか。政治の決断に注目したい。

8月5日、ILCが切り開くであろう科学の未来の姿について、シェルドン・L・グラショウ博士とバリー・C・バリッシュ博士という2人のノーベル物理学賞受賞者がお茶の水女子大学にて「ノーベル賞受賞者に聞く ILCが開く科学の未来」と題した講演を行なった。

The ILC’s establishment is expected to lead to further Nobel Prize-level discoveries. 5 years have passed since then and the time has come for Japan to make a decision about building the ILC. Will Japan be able to host its first international science megaproject? (broadcasted on 31 August)

LCは日米欧を中心に国際協力で建設する計画だが、欧州では19年初めに素粒子物理学の次期研究計画の議論が始まる。もし18年中に日本が誘致を決めなければ欧州の参加が難しくなり、ILC建設が暗礁に乗り上げる可能性が高い。学術会議の結論を受けて日本政府が誘致の是非をどう判断をするのか、世界が注目している。

“Researchers around the globe have determined the ILC to be highly valuable. We think we have cleared the hurdles regarding proving the project’s academic significance and design, and would like you to move to the next step: concrete negotiations with other countries on sharing the costs, and establishing an organization to push forth the project.”
(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here)

Burt was keen to push for ever-higher particle energies. To produce lots of Z-particles, a carrier of the weak nuclear force, he invented the SLAC linear collider. Short pulses of high-energy electrons and positrons, in beams the width of a human hair, travel for miles along the SLAC accelerator.

｢宇宙誕生の謎を解く｣とされる、研究施設の誘致を目指す動きが加速している。
国際リニアコライダー（ILC）と呼ばれる素粒子物理学の実験装置を、総額約7000億〜8000億円かけて岩手・宮城両県にまたがる北上山地に建設する計画だ。

宇宙誕生直後の素粒子の反応を再現し、宇宙や時間、空間や質量の謎に迫る研究のため進められている「国際リニアコライダー「ILC」計画」。ILCは、北上山地への誘致が期待されている全長約20kmの、世界最先端の素粒子実験施設です。世界最先端の実験が切り開く科学の未来について、ノーベル賞受賞者たちに伺います。

Researchers around the world are urging the Japanese government to make a decision on the ILC within the year. The Science Council of Japan, which was asked by MEXT to deliberate on the project, has established a committee to debate and evaluate the ILC, and the government will take their results into account when making their decision whether or not to host the ILC.
(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here)

次世代の大型加速器「国際リニアコライダー（ILC）」の日本誘致を目指す計画をめぐり、ノーベル物理学賞の受賞経験がある米国の2博士が7日、東京の外国特派員協会で記者会見を開き、ILC計画の意義や可能性などについて説明した。

“Is what CERN found really the Higgs particle? We haven’t been able to precisely measure its characteristics yet, so that will be one of the roles of the ILC. There is a possibility the ILC will discover other various surprising things. For the next few decades, it may be able to research things in a way that other competing machines won’t be able to. Japan is in a very fortuitous position to be able to build that sort of international laboratory.”
(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here)

The International Linear Collider project press conference by two renowned Nobel laureates.

In these 20 years, I worked on developing a detector for gravitational waves (which got me the Nobel Prize). I didn’t know I would succeed, and feared I would fail. But because I tried, a breakthrough happened. The ILC will be the same. By going forth and challenging ourselves, a new horizon will open to us. I worked on the design for the past ten years. Research and development already has created a model that is ready (to be built).
(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here)

Barish said that the ILC had the potential to contribute greatly to the evolution of elementary particle physics through its precision study of the Higgs boson particle (thought to give mass to matter). “Researchers will gather from around the world to work on the ILC, and they will bring diverse skills and knowledge. I hope that Japan will make a decision in the near future.”Glashow said that the ILC might lead to a clue that would unravel the mysteries behind things the Standard Model cannot explain.
(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here)

President Suzuki explained how they came to a realistic figure: “There are signs that the economic effects will only grow with time. This is a very reliable calculation if you take into account the market value of accelerator technology thus far.”
(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here)

“(…) we are in a good place to develop momentum to get [international] cooperation for the ILC. Next year, the board of directors at CERN will begin deliberations on the next 5-year strategy for particle physics in Europe, so “this is a very crucial period. The Japanese government must make their intentions clear.”
(Full translation provided by Iwate & the ILC website. Read Japanese original here)