Newsline

Director's Corner

S1-Global – a plug-compatible ILC demonstration experiment

by Barry Barish

The S1-Global experiment was conceived to demonstrate the radiofrequency (RF) operation of an ILC cryomodule with an average accelerating gradient of 31.5 MV/metre. The project to build a segment of a superconducting linac system and test the string of superconducting RF cavities was carried out at KEK through a global collaboration. This experiment provided a significant and successful demonstration of the operation of eight nine-cell superconducting cavities and associated hardware components with components provided from laboratories around the world.

LCpedia

Klystron

by Daisy Yuhas

Superconducting cavities accelerate particles using radiofrequency (RF) power. But where does the power to accelerate a beam by millions of electronvolts come from? The ILC’s power source can provide only about 100 watts, but to push that power up to the required level you need a device called a klystron. The klystron is a power amplifier. It can expand a few tens of watts into millions, or megawatts. Each ILC klystron will supply amplified power to 39 superconducting cavities for the baseline design.

Video of the week

SLAC All Access: klystrons on YouTube

SLAC's YouTube channel has more on klystrons, and of course the legendary klystron gallery. In a video about SLAC's Vacuum Microwave Device Department (VMDD), introduces itself as those people who build the devices that make SLAC's particle accelerators go: klystrons. These devices generate intense waves of microwave energy that rocket subatomic particles up to nearly the speed of light. Department head Andy Haase takes us behind the scenes where klystrons are born.

These devices are developed, designed and fabricated by teams of physicists, engineers and technicians in coordination across several departments within SLAC's Accelerator Directorate. Check out the AD website

Research Director's Report

How to make the ILC truly international

by Hitoshi Yamamoto

In order for an international project like the ILC to succeed, being able to construct the accelerator itself is not enough. To make the future ILC city an attractive and comfortable place to come and stay for a prolonged period, it is also critical that the site is geologically sound and that the living conditions of the staff and their families are agreeable.

Image of the week

Which way to the ILC, please?

Drivers stuck in a traffic jam in Ichinoseki city are more likely to wonder about the mysteries of the Universe than about the latest Hollywood movie - at least if they take in the billboards at the side of the road. Japan's Iwate prefecture in the Tohoku region in the north of the country boasts a road sign underlining the region's interest in hosting the ILC.

In the News

  • from intermediair.nl
    17 October 2012
    De vijf meest gehypte wetenschappen of technieken

    Maar eigenlijk is de versneller aldaar niet optimaal geschikt voor dat soort werk, en dus wordt er druk gerekend en getekend aan een nieuwe versneller, de International Linear Collider. Daarmee moet het mogelijk zijn heel veel Higgs-deeltjes te produceren. (google translation)

  • from phys.org
    15 October 2012
    Accelerators can search for signs of Planck-scale gravity

    The PETRA-III accelerator at DESY and the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC) could test the energy-dependent bending of light by gravity at very small scales.