An ILC with collisions at 250 GeV is an “enormously exciting” first phase of the project, says the Linear Collider Collaboration’s Associate Director for Physics and Detectors, Jim Brau of the University of Oregon. Awaiting ILC project reviews in Japan while planning the next community meeting, LCWS2018, he explains how the Fermilab history of energy upgrades after successful and innovative management and operation could serve as a model for the ILC.
Four Nobel laureates in Physics Sheldon Glashow, Barry Barish, Masatoshi Koshiba and Yoshinori Osumi publicly support the ILC project in a symposium held at the University of Tokyo last August. The ILC is “absolutely essential,” they said, and not just for particle physics.
Here is how to tackle what would normally take a couple of months in a couple of weeks. A group of students and experts from the CALICE Collaboration recently spent three weeks tucked away at the University of Tokyo to get their heads round and analyse all the data taken at the most recent testbeam of the CALICE calorimeter setup. They emerged with new ideas and lots of knowledge in their heads.
Have you ever seen pictures of people proudly showing off tattoos or stickers showing a compass-like stylised particle collision and wondered what that was all about? Have you heard of a group called “ILC Supporters” but didn’t know who they are and how to join them? This interview with Kimura U, Japan’s "ambassador for cute (kawaii)" and famous ILC Supporter, should answer all your questions.
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 originalhere).
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.
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 originalhere).
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.
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)
“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 originalhere)
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.
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 originalhere)
“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 originalhere)
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 originalhere)
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 originalhere)
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 originalhere)
“(…) 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 originalhere)
