19 November 2009The Quantum Beam Project, a year–old project to study and utilise the quantum nature of particle beams at KEK, is developing a commercial version of a new affordable, compact X–ray source. The aim of the project is to develop a compact and high-quality particle source for broad commercial use in medicine, life science, information technology, nanotechnology, and quantum science. The project's name, Quantum Beam, refers to beams of particles like neutrons, photons, and ions, which exhibit quantum mechanical behaviours, and the unique feature of the project is to take advantage of this nature to promote the technology transfer of an affordable compact X–ray source to hospitals and research institutions.
Category: Feature | Tagged: KEK, X-ray source
Rika Takahashi | 12 November 2009In late October, the fast kickers at the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at KEK have successfully kicked the beam bunches in 5.6 nanoseconds. Conditioning these bunches is the job of the damping rings, and the kicker system is one of the crucial technologies which hold the key of the damping ring performance.
Category: Feature | Tagged: ATF, KEK, kicker
Barbara Warmbein | 5 November 2009Even though University of Oregon professor and Americas regional contact for the ILC physics and detectors studies Jim Brau had specifically invited a young audience to his public lecture on 1 October in the University of Albuquerque, he thought of teenagers and university students rather than seven–year–olds. But Brau gave particle physics one of its youngest fans — little Abigail Zwartz was so gripped by his talk that she took notes eagerly and even presented them in school the next day.
Category: Feature | Tagged: outreach, public event, public lecture
Barbara Warmbein | 29 October 2009The idea sounds simple enough: collect all the data that exist in the world on cavities – nine-cell TESLA-style cavities, to be precise – including all tests, manufacturers and achieved gradients and merge it into a common format so that all cavity professionals around the world can extract the data they need to compare cavity performance and learn. Anyone who has ever set up a database and tried to merge existing data sets into one knows: it's not that easy. However, the ILC's accelerator experts have just decided that they will all use a database system developed by DESY to set up the world's first global cavity database.
Category: Feature | Tagged: cavity database, DESY
Perrine Royole-Degieux | 22 October 2009Just after the ILC concept detector validation report was released, the CALICE (Calorimeter for the linear collider experiment) Collaboration met from 16 to 18 September in Lyon, France. This meeting was the place of lively discussions on the most recent test beam results and strategies for the R&D and studies for the future as the collaboration is entering now a crucial and intense new phase. It was the most attended CALICE meeting ever and nearly all participating countries were represented.
Category: Feature | Tagged: CALICE
15 October 2009Since beginning his career in 1986, SLAC senior scientist and project manager for FACET Andrei Seryi has worked at five labs in three countries, with the last 10 years at SLAC. In this decade, Seryi has led international collaborations to design and build linear accelerator experimental facilities, all while continuing his accelerator research and design projects at SLAC.
Category: Feature | Tagged: ATF2, SLAC
Barbara Warmbein | 8 October 2009The new group for linear collider detector development at CERN is less than a year old, but it is growing fast: a number of students and fellows are already working on simulations, and as of next year there will be funds for actual hardware development. The linear collider detector R&D group (LCD) is led by Lucie Linssen. As a group based at CERN, home of the Compact Linear Collider study CLIC, its main focus is on detectors that record the collisions that CLIC would produce. At three TeV these have a much higher energy than the 500-GeV collisions at the ILC, higher backgrounds and very different timing: whereas there are 340 nanoseconds between two particles bunches colliding in the ILC, at CLIC the plan is to have electron-positron collisions every half a nanosecond.
Category: Feature | Tagged: detector development, LCD
1 October 2009At SLAC, accelerator physicists Chris Adolphsen and Chris Nantista are working on one point that has proven to be particularly prickly: figuring out how to provide the accelerator with the power needed to drive the machine's high-energy particle collisions.
Category: Feature | Tagged: coaxial tap off, klystron, SLAC
Barbara Warmbein | 24 September 2009The last two weeks were two of the most important (and intense) weeks for accelerator specialists working on the ILC. After a long period of preparation and a series of first tests, they have just finished a period of successfully running the superconducting linear accelerator FLASH at DESY under ILC-like conditions to demonstrate that a long train of electron bunches with high charge can be produced in and travel through the accelerator – and stay there, too. After the ILC-like run, which ended on Monday after long day and night shifts in the control room, FLASH will receive a major upgrade to improve capabilities and performance for the users of the laser light generated by FLASH.
Category: Feature | Tagged: DESY, FLASH
Perrine Royole-Degieux | 24 September 2009For the third time, the NewsLine team conducted a survey this summer. Who are our readers? Are they satisfied with the content? The survey says that you read us more often, that you are generally satisfied with the balance of the subjects and that you are enthusiastic about NewsLine's new thematic issues. However you would like to see more science and expect more stories about the connections between the ILC and other particle physics or accelerator projects.
Category: Feature | Tagged: survey
