The long-awaited report of the study group for the future European Strategy for particle physics was presented by the chair of the study group, Professor Halina Abramowicz, at a special session of the CERN Council on 19 June. The report covers the broad range of particle physics from the precision low-energy experiments to the very high energy […]
Final countdown to the decision-making process
The decision-making process of hosting the International Linear Collider in Japan is now approaching a critical point. The Japanese government has decided that the ILC should be re-evaluated by the Science Council of Japan (SCJ), together with other big science projects, as part of its roadmap for the future. This evaluation, called the “Japanese Master Plan of Large […]
CERN Council Open Symposium on the Update of European Strategy for Particle Physics
Six hundred (600) particle physicists gathered for discussions of the physics case for various options on the future of particle physics. This process to update the European Strategy for Particle Physics is mandated by the CERN Council every 6 or 7 years and this is the third time. In addition to people in Europe, there […]
A linear collider strategy
The European Strategy process (ESPP) is moving ahead, with an Open Symposium in Granada, Spain as the next main event. Preparing for this meeting and strategy discussions in general, a Linear Collider Community Meeting was held at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland in the beginning of April. The meeting was arranged on […]
Decision on the International Linear Collider: “Not what we had hoped for but progress nevertheless”
On 7 March 2019, the Japanese government has expressed its position for the International Linear Collider, a proposed particle physics project that would be hosted in the Kitakami mountains in the north of the country. The government has decided to not yet make a proposal to host the project, but has expressed interest in the […]
LCWS2018: preparing for ILC realisation
The 2018 Linear Collider Workshop (LCWS2018) will be held on the campus of the University of Texas, Arlington on 22-26 October. This is the latest in the long series of linear collider workshops, dating back to Saariselkae, Finland, in 1991. The community has met numerous times over the past 27 years, but never with the level […]
Towards the realization of the International Linear Collider, an update
The 2018 Asian Linear Collider Workshop (ALCW2018) is being held in Fukuoka, Japan from 28 May to 1 June. At the meeting a statement was unanimously endorsed stressing the scientific importance of the ILC and urging the Japanese government to declare interest in hosting the project. A decision is now urgent because the European Strategy Group, […]
The ILC at 250 GeV: an overview of options
In November 2017, the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) issued a statement supporting the construction of the International Linear Collider (ILC) operating at 250 GeV. It is based on machine and physics reports from the linear collider community. Following Jim Brau’s view on the physics case in the last issue, here is my personal […]
ILC250 Higgs factory: ready for launch!
The world of particle physics changed in 2012. Following decades of experimental searches and analysis, the scalar particle thought to be responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking, the Higgs boson, was discovered by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC at CERN. Now that we know of the existence and mass of the Higgs boson, […]
Preparing for the update
The Linear Collider (LC) activities world-wide are entering a defining two years. The overall picture is quite clear in the short term. The European Strategy Update process has defined its organisation and timescale in more detail, expecting input documents to be submitted by the end of 2018. On the ILC side we are expecting clarifying […]