Rika Takahashi | 27 March 2008Superconducting cavities are the core, the heartbeat of the International Linear Collider. Their inside will be polished to literally make them sparkle without any speck of dust or crack because these could cause a decline of performance of the accelerator. There are several methods to polish the inside of the cavities, and electropolishing (EP) is one of them. The new EP system at KEK has started its test-run in January, and scientists are gathering basic data to evaluate the machine's capability.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: electropolishing, KEK
Barbara Warmbein | 20 March 2008Have you ever used a map to find an electron? Not possible, you say? Think again. Spell it slightly differently – MAPS – put it into an electromagnetic calorimeter, and you may well be able to track an electron in a calorimeter and see the single electrons in a particle shower. With a spatial granularity of 50 microns square– that's 50 thousandths of a millimetre – a potential sensor, called MAPS or monolithic active pixel sensor, for an ILC detector's digital electromagnetic calorimeter could be an efficient alternative to existing silicon technology. A UK-based group is currently evaluating how suitable this technology is for a calorimeter optimised for particle flow, with a view to seeing how efficient, reliable and cost-effective it is.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: CMOS, detector R&D, MAPS, monolithic active pixel sensor, United Kingdom
Barbara Warmbein | 13 March 2008At the end of a productive working day, a long journey, a hard job or a rewarding week, Japanese people have a very useful phrase that expresses everything from gratitude and pride to exhaustion: Otsukare sama deshita, or simply otsukare. Even though not all participants of last week's TILC08 meeting may be aware of the expression, all are almost certainly aware of the 'otsukare' feeling after several days of intense and rewarding parallel and plenary sessions, splinter meetings and social interaction. Here are some impressions from the meeting that did not make it onto the official agenda.
Category: Around the World, Slideshow | Tagged: Japan, photo album, R&D Plan, Sendai, TILC08
6 March 2008After the news about budget reductions, especially for ILC activities, in December last year in the UK and US, there was considerable discussion within SiD whether to have this meeting or not. In the end we decided to proceed as planned because the call for LOIs still exists and SiD wants to prepare an LOI.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: ALCPG07, detector concepts, LOI, SiD, SLAC, UK budget, US budget
Rika Takahashi | 28 February 2008Kazuko Toyomura has been assisting KEK's ILC activity for four years, and since Sakue Yamada was appointed as a Research Director last October, her involvement has become even deeper. “She is not 'officially' assigned as secretary for the International Detector Advisory Group (IDAG), but she has been taking care of my activities,” says Yamada. Toyomura is a secretary for the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies at KEK. Other than her new role in ILC detector community, Toyomura is managing the day-to-day activities for KEK's ILC detector and ZEUS experimental groups, including travel arrangements, guests and visitors support, and helping post-doc students.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: IDAG, KEK
Barbara Warmbein | 21 February 2008Even – or especially ? – directors cannot have their eyes everywhere. They need to gather information and be able to judge things – but how do you do this on a continent where labs can be 3,000 kilometres apart, every country has different forms of governance, and science policy and funding agencies couldn’t be harder to grasp? Global Design Effort European Regional Director Brian Foster has found his own solution. If a reasonable number of high-level European physicists and lab directors come together in one place, he often calls for a meeting of his Advisory Group. One of these European Advisory Group meetings has just happened at DESY, slotted in right after the ICFA and ILCSC meetings, to minimise travel.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: Europe
Elizabeth Clements | 7 February 2008Vinod Sahni, the director of India's Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology, spent the greater part of December visiting U.S. laboratories. Tour stops included Brookhaven, SLAC and Fermilab, where he had the opportunity to discuss such activities as superconducting radiofrequency technology and Project X.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: Fermilab, India, RRCAT, SRF technology
31 January 2008The sixth meeting of the Silicon tracking for the Linear Collider R&D Collaboration (SiLC) took place at the University degli Studi in Turin from 18 to 20 December 2007. The three-day meeting was attended by about 50 people and covered all the main topics of interest for this R&D.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: CMOS, SiLC, silicon tracking
Barbara Warmbein | 24 January 2008At first glance a neutron source used for materials research and a planned particle accelerator to answer questions about matter, forces and the origins of the Universe might not seem to have all that much in common. At least not to the non-accelerator experts among us. At second glance, however, similarities and overlaps appear that turn the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US into a small but powerful parallel experience for the ILC.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: cryomodule, Oak Ridge Lab, SCRF test facility, SNS, United States
Rika Takahashi | 24 January 2008From 7 to 11 January, the first school on the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) technology was held at the China Center for Advanced Science and Technology (CCAST) in Beijing. Over 50 students, young scientists and senior researchers from Asia and the rest of the world gathered to learn and discuss about TPC Technology for the International Linear Collider.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: CCAST, TPC
