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 15 December 2005
First Workshop to build a Spanish ILC Network


Some of the attendees of ILC Spanish Workshop waiting for their "paella valenciana" in Gandia.

On 1-3 December 2005, Spain held its first Workshop on the ILC in the "palau Ducal" in the city of Gandía, province of Valencia (Spain). About 70 researchers attended the meeting and all high energy physics laboratories were represented. This meeting aimed to present the ILC and its progress to the Spanish Particle Physics community. Some groups had individually already expressed interest in the ILC, but they determined that a national network was necessary.

Juan Fuster
"Because of the limited resources we have in Spain, the only way to contribute effectively to the ILC is to focus and coordinate our work between the different groups.", said Spanish Physicist Juan Fuster, director of the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC) in Valencia and co-organiser of the workshop, in a recent interview.

Linear collider expertise already exists in Spain. There was an early interest in the Research Center on Energies, Environment and Technology (CIEMAT) in Madrid, a technically oriented institution. They developed within linac collaborations, such as TESLA500, an excellent know-how on superconducting magnets. CIEMAT also contributes to XFEL and CLIC. In the (Physics Institute of Cantabria (IFCA), some physicists belong to the Silicium tracking for the Linear Collider Collaboration (SiLC). At IFIC, there are experts in Silicium trackers, machine and Machine Detectors Interface.


Domenec Espriu
Domenec Espriu, coordinator for the Spanish Funding Agency for particle physics, "The National Program for Particle Physics", stressed the priorities of the national activities. "The first big project of Spain for the future years is obviously the LHC. People will want to be part of the physical analyses after all the commitment they had in the preparation phase of the project". However, the National Program will also fund an ILC network to gather information, to travel and to discuss.

Whether to join the ILC project or not will not be imposed by a national decision and each group will decide individually whether they wish to participate to the project or not. "The ILC is a very challenging and interesting project, and our funding agency supports interesting projects. If the labs want to follow the international effort, they will be funded", said Espriu.

During the workshop, the main experimental challenges of the future linear collider were presented to the audience by experts of the fields, together with the theoretical context of the project. "There will be a second meeting in the first half of 2006, where hopefully we will know more about the conclusions of each group's internal discussion. At least two groups should seriously think about joining the international effort on the ILC", added Fuster.

Photo page
Talks from the Gandia workshop

--Perrine Royole-Degieux
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