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 Intent (LOIs) for the detector concepts and start reviewing them.

IDAG at work during their first meeting in Warsaw, June 2008.

When IDAG members met formally for the first time in Warsaw, Poland, last June, they had several exchanges with Research Director Sakue Yamada to clarify their mandate. They now have a clear idea on which criteria the detector concepts will be evaluated. They also formulated their requests to the concept groups concerning which information they will need. Following open presentations from each LOI group – ILD, SiD and the 4th concept, and an interview with each of them, the goal of this second meeting was for IDAG to get ready to start evaluating the LOIs as soon as they receive them.

Although their expertise ranges from detector and theory to accelerator physics, the sixteen IDAG members want to keep a global view on each concept during the evaluation of the LOIs. With this aim in mind, IDAG Chair Michel Davier proposed to the members a matrix approach of the review where all of them will be involved in two kinds of tasks. On one hand they will scrutinise specific topics for all concepts - benchmarking, tracking, calorimetry or machine-detector interface, depending on their expertise. On the other hand they will review each specific concept for all aspects, from its physics performance and detector feasibility to the capability of the group to conduct detailed technical studies. Four conveners will coordinate the vertical tasks and three referees - one for each proposed detector concept - will report on the horizontal "global" approach.

“I'm pleased that we quickly reached a common view among our group,” said Davier. “We are now convinced that this cross-evaluation of the LOIs will make sure that the whole IDAG will develop a clear and fair vision of each concept.” Davier also recognised that if this matrix approach is simple on paper, in practice it will require a lot of work. Regular phone meetings are foreseen, starting with preparatory ones as soon as January. They will methodically prepare the evaluation and the initial questions to each concept. “We are going to be very busy, keeping constant interactions with the LOI contact persons,” said Davier, “but these are exciting times for the ILC physics community.” The IDAG validation report will be delivered to the Research Director in September, but the role of the group will not end there. The International Linear Collider Steering Committee (ILSC) has recently extended its mandate to 2012. IDAG will follow the technical design phase of the validated detectors in coordination with the Global Design Effort.

-- Perrine Royole-Degieux

Read Davier's talk for more details