Lyn Evans | 27 June 2013Physics isn’t usually associated with big emotions, and in the everyday life at the labs this is probably true. However, our field has recently had many momentous events, and the excitement these have caused have made particle physics one of the most popular science topics in the world. Let’s use this momentum to get ahead in our plan to build the ILC – maybe in stages and in Japan?
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: Fermilab, Japan, site selection, Technical Design Report
Barry Barish | 13 June 2013The Global Design Effort has completed its mandate to produce a technical design for the ILC. Yesterday’s official handover of the Technical Design Report to ICFA was the culmination of a celebratory three continent event this week. The discovery of the Higgs particle at the LHC at CERN, the production of a viable design for a complementary electron-positron linear collider and the interest of the Japanese in hosting this machine combine to greatly encourage our communities’ hopes and dreams of building the ILC.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: cold technology, electron-positron collider, executive committee, GDE, hadron collider, Technical Design Report, warm technology
Juan Fuster | 30 May 2013The European Linear Collider workshop, taking place in Hamburg from 27 to 31 May, coincides with very many important strategic processes at Japan, Europe and US, all of them nourished by the optimistic results from the LHC. Juan Fuster, chair of the workshop programme committee, explains the scientific and political context of the meeting.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: CLIC, DESY, ECFA LC2013, European Strategy for Particle Physics, Higgs, ILC, TDR, worldwide event
Steinar Stapnes | 16 May 2013The European Strategy for Particle Physics is expected to be adopted by the CERN Council end May. The physics potential of future linear colliders is well recognised in the Strategy statements. As global projects have cross-regional consequences, this strategy could have a wide impact in and beyond Europe.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: CERN, CLIC, European Strategy for Particle Physics, ILC
Barry Barish | 2 May 2013A key feature of the ILC is that it is a single-pass machine. In contrast to a circular accelerator, where the beam goes around many times, the ILC beams pass through each accelerator element only once, including the interaction point. For the accelerator, this means that for each accelerating module, the machine must be very efficient at transferring wall power into the machine beam, with the added requirement that the final beam must emerge with very low emittance so that it can be focused to the very tiny beam spot required to achieve high luminosity. The ATF-2 at KEK is a special test beam line that has been built to demonstrate the ability to achieve ILC-like namometre beam spots and stabilise them. Recent tests have demonstrated beam spots that are within a factor of two of the ILC design and promise to improve in the future.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: ATF2, beam spot size, final focus, KEK, PAC
Mike Harrison | 4 April 2013The problems of succession to the throne have bedeviled society throughout the ages. For centuries the European approach seemed to involve bloodshed ranging from the personal to the national level. The recent transfer of power in the linear collider world might not have been violent, but it still faces the eternal question of “OK, so where do we go from here?” Here are some thoughts on the ILC programme.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: cavity production, CLIC, cryomodule, Higgs factory, Technical Design Report
Barry Barish | 7 March 2013The final deliverable of the Global Design Effort, the ILC Technical Design Report, was completed and submitted in draft form to the International Linear Collider Steering Committee in November 2012. Following a successful technical review of the design in December, an International Cost Review was conducted in February of the value estimate. The cost review validated the TDR value estimates, and pointed out other costing efforts that will be needed as the ILC becomes a site-specific construction project.
Category: Director's Corner | Tagged: cost estimate, cost review, ILCU, labour, Technical Design Report, value estimate
