Hundreds of millions of channels of electronics: this is about what the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECal) of the CALICE collaboration will have to design, process and analyse. The very high granularity of ILC detector’s future calorimeter will also be reflected in the ambitious first-stage electronics – or very-front-end electronics, which still needs to be designed. One […]
From SLAC Today: Groovy Beam Pipe Update
Something unwanted lurks within accelerator beam pipes around the world: stray electrons. This haze of electrons interacts with positron and proton beams, often causing distortion. Previous tests showed that an insert designed by SLAC researchers works well to capture stray electrons in an environment with no magnetic field. Now, recent tests carried out at the […]
From KEK: New beam line for R&D of nano-meter electron beam has been started at Accelerator Test Facility
A new beamline for R&D toward nano-meter electron beam has started operation at KEK’s Accelerator Test Facility – ATF. This new beamline, called ATF2, is an extension of ATF, and the focus of the research there will be on establishing the technologies for creation and control of a nano-meter-sized electron beam. ATF is an accelerator […]
From four to six quarks in a month and a half
An interview with Toshihide Maskawa, Nobel laureate of Physics
Toshihide Maskawa is one of the most popular public figures in Japan at the moment. He has charmed many Japanese people with his humour and pure passion for the science that he showed at the press conference after he won the 2008 Nobel prize in physics, together with Yoichiro Nambu, professor emeritus at Chicago University, […]
Large-scale international research facilities
A paper for the National Science and Technology Summit
The nature of modern scientific research has been changing due to the increased reliance on large-scale scientific facilities for forefront research. The programmes at our DOE National Laboratories have become focused more and more around large facilities and the programme of Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) has emerged as a very important part […]
Announcement: TILC09 will be held in Tsukuba next April
April is the best time to visit Japan – nice and warm weather, cherry blossoms and lively atmosphere of starting a new fiscal year – and of course, TILC09! A worldwide meeting of physicists on the ILC accelerator, experiments and theory to further the ILC’s Technical Design Phase. Epochal Tsukuba: the conference venue for TILC09 […]
Beauty lies within
The inner surfaces of the niobium cavities for the International Linear Collider have to be polished to literally sparkle, since the smallest defects, such as bumps, pits, welding flaws or human-induced scratches on them are considered to be dominantly responsible for the deterioration of the cavity performance and can even lead to quenches and field […]
Commission accomplished
Part three of a series on how the CESR storage ring turns into the CesrTA damping ring
When you have a set of new hardware and a clear mission ahead of you, the first step to complete the mission is to commission the hardware. After reconfiguring their storage ring and light source CESR, Cornell University and the international ILC team working on damping ring studies switched on the machine in early October […]
IDAG prepares to review Letters of Intent
The International Detector Advisory Group (IDAG) met for the second time during the LCWS08 meeting which took place in Chicago two weeks ago. In a few days, they succeeded to converge on the strategy they will use to evaluate the ILC detectors concepts. At the end of March 2009, they will receive the Letters of […]
From SLAC Today: Marx Modulator Begins Testing in End Station B
This week SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory moves one step closer to producing an innovative new piece of the International Linear Collider. The first-generation model of a new design for equipment that helps power the accelerator is moving from the SLAC Power Conversion Department to End Station B, where it will undergo long-term testing. The new […]