The major activity for the Global Design Effort in January was centred on the second Baseline Assessment Workshop held at SLAC from 18 to 21 January. Nick Walker reported on the meeting in this column last week, and I will report on the proposed change actions as soon as they occur. But in addition, by […]
Taking heed of good advice
The most obvious benefit of the seemingly endless series of reviews we undergo comes from the rigours of doing our preparations. But the reviews also serve to validate our work, and perhaps most importantly, the review committees give us good advice in their reports. Last autumn, we had a two-day technical review of the Global […]
What did we accomplish last year?
The ILC is still very much a dream and the path to a real project remains highly uncertain, even though the scientific case is as strong as ever and we continue to meet all our highest priority goals. Hopefully, the world political and economic climate will improve before too long and there will once again […]
Investing in particle physics
Happy New Year! This is my first column of 2011 and I am very pleased to begin the year by reporting on the significant new investment in particle physics by the Italian government. The Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research has announced the funding of the proposed €400-million Super B project of the Italian […]
Evolving the ILC baseline: single main linac tunnel
Director’s Corner 16 December 2010 Barry Barish Evolving the ILC baseline: single main linac tunnel Two weeks ago I described the motivation and the process for evolving the baseline for the technical design we are undertaking over the next two years. That work will culminate in a Technical Design Report (TDR) at the end of […]
Evolving the ILC baseline: main linac operating gradient
Director’s Corner 9 December 2010 Barry Barish Evolving the ILC baseline: main linac operating gradient Last week I described the motivation and the process for evolving the baseline for the technical design effort that we will be carrying out over the next two years, culminating in a Technical Design Report (TDR) at the end of […]
Evolving the ILC baseline
Director’s Corner 2 December 2010 Barry Barish Evolving the ILC baseline I have officially approved two major changes in the ILC baseline configuration for the next phase of our R&D and design work. Last year, the Global Design Effort project managers proposed a set of changes to the ILC baseline, called "SB2009", aimed at improving […]
Linear Collider Accelerator School
Director’s Corner 18 November 2010 Barry Barish Linear Collider Accelerator School Following the very intense joint ILC/CLIC workshop (IWLC10) in Geneva last month, I went around Lake Geneva to Villars-sur-Ollon. Our fifth Linear Collider Accelerator School, and the first one sponsored jointly by ILC and CLIC, was held there from 25 October to 5 November […]
Electron-Cloud physics
Director’s Corner 11 November 2010 Barry Barish Electron-cloud physics What is and what causes an electron cloud in a modern accelerator? What problems does it create on accelerator performance and how can its effects be mitigated? This was the subject of a special workshop at Cornell University held from 8 to 12 October 2010, sponsored […]
Cavity gradient milestone achieved
Director’s Corner 4 November 2010 Barry Barish Cavity gradient milestone achieved One of our most visible and important ILC R&D short-term milestones has been to demonstrate production of ILC superconducting radio frequency cavities with gradient of greater than or equal to 35 megavolts per metre (MV/m) and Q0 = 8×109 and 50 percent production yield. (Q0 […]