23 July 2009Imagine a world existing parallel to our world that we practically do not perceive at all. Some scientific theories suggest that such a world exists, but nobody has ever seen it. With unprecedented accuracy, the ALPS (Any Light Particle Search) experiment is now searching for particles from such a world. In case it does exist, this would immediately support new theory models like string theory and also explain unresolved phenomena like dark matter and dark energy.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: ALPS, HEAR, WISP
Rika Takahashi | 23 July 2009"Uchu (宇宙)" is the Japanese word that can be translated as either "universe" or "space." The Advanced Accelerator Association Promoting Science and Technology (AAA) in Japan has been on tour with their symposium series on "uchu" – observing by telescope, exploring by spacecraft and re-creating by accelerator – and the second event was just held in Hiroshima on 4 July.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: AAA, Accelerator Association Promoting Science and Technology, Japan
9 July 2009The International Linear Collider (ILC) and Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) studies both call for cutting-edge technologies. At first glance they may appear to be in competition, but they are in fact complementary and have a common objective – namely to propose a design , as soon as possible and at the lowest possible cost, for the linear accelerator best suited to taking over the baton of physics research at the high-energy frontier after the LHC.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: CLIC, ILC-CLIC collaboration
Barbara Warmbein | 2 July 2009Most collaborations who test their detector prototypes in a test beam want a well-defined stream of single particles into their setup so that they can test their equipment, alignment and software in order to cross-check it against the particle beam. Others want their setup bombarded to see whether it works – for example, the team around DESY's Jenny List, who design and build so-called polarimeters that measure the combined spin of the beams of electrons and positrons as they pass through before and after they have collided. (Read the info box for a more detailed description of a polarimeter or follow the link to learn more about polarisation.)
Category: Around the World | Tagged: DESY, polarimeter
25 June 2009Yesterday, a team of physicists and engineers from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory completed initial testing on a new power source, the Marx modulator, connected to its target device, and launched a yearlong test. This test will be the final step in proving the reliability of a device poised to transform the way particle accelerators are powered.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: marx modulator, SLAC
18 June 2009Nearly every one of the myriad complex components of the International Linear Collider pushes the limits of today's technology, and for the ILC to succeed, each one of them has to work as designed. Researchers at the University of California, Davis (US) are concentrating on the interconnects – the connections between arrays of electronic circuit elements – in the ILC's proposed Silicon Detector Design Study (SiD) concept detector. The group is applying new technologies and advanced materials to improve the performance, efficiency, ease of assembly and robustness of these critical detector components.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: SiD, silicon-tungsten, SiW, UC Davis
11 June 2009The team, from SLAC's Advanced Computations Department, or ACD, is researching how to minimize the effects of charge "wakes" in the ILC, which will smash electrons and positrons into each other. As bunches of these particles race down accelerator tracks, electromagnetic wakes rise behind them. These wakefields can make the going rough for bunches to come, causing some particles to stray off course. As a result, beam quality can suffer and heat can build up inside accelerator cavities, potentially degrading their performance.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: SLAC, wakefield effect
4 June 2009TILC09 in Tsukuba, Japan, took place on Japanese Invention Day observed annually on 18 April, and the week in itself was designated as Science and Technology Week. Naturally, in Tsukuba, the population of research institutions is unparalleled in the country, and it becomes most festive during that week once a year. There were various events held throughout the nation during the week of 13 April, one of which was the TILC09's public lecture, "The universe's greatest magic!? – Antimatter annihilation" featuring a close-up magician, Tomohiro Maeda, Hitoshi Murayama of the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) and Takeo Higuchi of KEK.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: outreach, public event, public lecture, TILC09
Rika Takahashi | 28 May 2009A new website called Asian Accelerator Plaza (AAP) was officially launched on 27 May, and is aimed to be a comprehensive reference tool for anybody who is interested in Asian accelerator-related activities. This website was developed by collaboration among several Asian accelerator science research institutes, and is being operated in four languages: traditional and simplified Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. “I first thought it will be very challenging to translate the contents into different languages, but with the help from our Asian colleagues, it went quite smoothly,” said Tsunehiko Omori, KEK physicist and editor-in-chief of this website.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: AAP, Japan
21 May 2009Most particle physicists think that the International Linear Collider (ILC) could revolutionise our understanding of the universe, and will challenge inquisitive minds of particle physics. This is a field where University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, US, has been actively participating, particularly in muon detector research and in organising outreach activities between students, high school teachers and physicists.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: detector R&D, University of Notre Dame
